SFB 740: From Molecules to Modules: Organisation and Dynamics of Functional Units in Cells

我们的合作研究项目涉及生物功能、组织和复杂性如何从相互作用的生物大分子中产生的基本问题。在过去的几年里，人们越来越清楚地看到，活细胞中的主要反应途径是由大分子协同工作并形成具有模块化特征的相互作用网络。因此，被指定为“功能模块”的大分子的定义子集负责特定的细胞任务(Hartwell等人，1999)。在这些大分子集合中的时间有序的相互作用和复杂的形成促进了自主功能。功能模块包括两种一般类型的实体，即被组织为紧凑结构的大分子机器，如核糖体或蛋白酶体，以及更动态的系综体，其在功能期间，即在囊泡运输或信号转导期间改变其组成和/或组织。SFB 740是一项多学科的协同工作，致力于从自下而上的角度分析功能模块。选定的功能模块用生物物理、生物化学和/或分子和细胞生物学的工具进行研究，以获得对各种功能模块的组织和功能机制的具体见解。我们的分析从单个大分子及其相互作用开始，举例说明如何从大分子相互作用中产生模块功能，并得出功能模块的设计原则。我们的方法是对来自蛋白质组学和系统生物学的自上而下的方法的补充，并被认为缩小了单纯的分子观点和整体系统观点之间的差距。

Our collaborative research project deals with the fundamental question how biological function, organization and complexity arise from interacting biological macromolecules. It has become increasingly clear during the past years that major reaction pathways in the living cell are carried out by macromolecules that work in a concerted manner and form interaction networks with a modular character. Accordingly, defined subsets of the macromolecules designated as "functional modules" (Hartwell et al., 1999) are responsible for specific cellular tasks. Time-ordered interactions and complex formation within these ensembles of macromolecules facilitate an autonomous function. Functional modules comprise two general types of entities, i.e. macromolecular machines, which are organized as compact structures, such as the ribosome or the proteasome, and more dynamic ensembles, which change their composition and/or organization during function, i.e. during vesicular transport or signal transduction. The SFB 740 is a concerted multidisciplinary effort devoted to an analysis of functional modules from a bottom-up perspective. Selected functional modules are studied with the tools of biophysics, biochemistry, and/or molecular and cell biology to obtain specific insights into the organization and functional mechanism of the various functional modules. Our analysis starts from the single macromolecules and their interactions to exemplify how modular function arises from macromolecular interactions and to yield the ¿design principles¿ of functional module. Our approach is complementary to top-down approaches from proteomics and systems biology and is thought to close the gap between the mere molecular point of view and the holistic systems view.