Bacterial chemotaxis signaling: Towards molecular movies

细菌趋化信号：迈向分子电影

• 批准号: EP/Y027922/1
• 负责人: Peijun Zhang
• 金额: $ 23.84万
• 依托单位: Diamond Light Source
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY027922%2F1
• 关键词: Bacterial; chemotaxis; signaling; Towards; molecular

Chemotaxis is a common biological behavior that allows living organisms to move towards chemical stimuli and it has served as a model for the study of cellular sensory signal transduction and motile behavior. Escherichia coli's basic chemotaxis machinery is the most well-characterized signal transduction system, and it serves as a great tool for studying molecular processes involved in chemotaxis. E. coli cells' sensory machinery is a highly organized array of hundreds of basic core signaling units comprised of three essential components: transmembrane chemoreceptors, histidine kinase, and adaptor protein. Such organization allows cells to amplify and integrate many different signals to find optimal growth circumstances. It is necessary to characterize the precise interactions between the core signaling components in the array and in the native cellular context to understand the molecular processes of chemosensory array formation, activation, and high cooperativity. The most critical part of this project is to reveal the sequential conformational changes during signaling. To do so, the time-resolved method will be developed and combined with cryoelectron tomography for in situ structural analysis. The project aims for a molecular movie of chemotaxis signaling events at nearatomic resolution.

趋化性是一种常见的生物学行为，它允许生物体向化学刺激物移动，并且它已经作为研究细胞感觉信号转导和运动行为的模型。大肠杆菌的基本趋化机制是最具特征的信号转导系统，它是研究趋化性分子过程的重要工具。E.大肠杆菌细胞的感觉机制是由数百个基本核心信号单元组成的高度组织化的阵列，所述基本核心信号单元由三种基本组分组成：跨膜化学感受器、组氨酸激酶和衔接蛋白。这种组织允许细胞放大和整合许多不同的信号，以找到最佳的生长环境。有必要表征阵列中的核心信号传导组分与天然细胞环境中的核心信号传导组分之间的精确相互作用，以了解化学传感阵列形成、激活和高协同性的分子过程。本项目最关键的部分是揭示信号传导过程中的连续构象变化。为此，将开发时间分辨方法，并将其与低温电子断层扫描结合起来进行原位结构分析。该项目的目标是在近原子分辨率的趋化性信号事件的分子电影。