Low, H., Sachse, C., Amos, L., and Löwe, J. (2010)
Structure of a bacterial dynamin-like protein lipid tube provides a mechanism for assembly and membrane curving.
Cell 139, 1342-1352.
Michie K.A. & Löwe J. (2006)
Dynamic filaments of the bacterial cytoskeleton.
Annual Reviews in Biochemistry 75, 467-492.
Low H. & Löwe J.(2006)
A bacterial dynamin-like protein.
Nature 444, 766-768.
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Group Members
- Linda Amos
- Fusinita van den Ent
- Mark Bycroft
- Mark Allen
- Ramona Duman
- Fabrice Gorrec
- Chris Aylett
- Colin Palmer
- Piotr Szwedziak
- Gayathri Pananghat
- Danguole Ciziene
- Mekdes Debela
- Debnath Ghosal
- Raphael Gasper-Schönenbrücher
- Matthew Tsim
- Thierry Izore
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| Many cellular processes depend on complex proteins that share characteristics with machines: they contain multiple components, and make use of mechanical devices such as lever arms. Our aim is to understand molecular machines at the atomic level using X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and biochemical methods. Our main area of research is the bacterial cytoskeleton. We have shown that bacteria contain both actin and tubulin-like proteins that polymerise in vivo and in vitro into filaments similar to their counterparts in eukaryotes.
FtsZ, the bacterial tubulin homologue forms a ring around the septum during bacterial cell division that recruits a number of additional proteins. We are currently trying to understand the dynamics of FtsZorchestrated cell division.
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The bacterial actin homologue MreB polymerises into filaments very similar to eukaryotic F-actin and is involved in cell shape determination. The MreB system is even less-well understood when compared with FtsZ and it is expected that these two families of proteins are involved in a wide variety of cellular activities that we will investigate both on the structural and functional level.
Recently, we have started to successfully investigate the bacterial cytoskeleton by visualising it using electron cryotomography on whole, frozen cells, enabling us to understand its organisation at the cellular level of bacteria.
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Group Leaders 
