Transporting Folded Proteins Across Membranes
Ben Berks, University of Oxford
| When |
16 Dec, 2011
from
11:00 am to 12:00 pm |
|---|---|
| Where | Room 2.13 |
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Seminar
Tite: Transporting Folded Proteins Across Membranes
Speaker: Ben Berks
Affiliation: University of Oxford
Host: Inês Cardoso Pereira
Abstract
Transport of proteins across membranes is a fundamental feature of cellular life and is catalyzed by specific transporter proteins. For many years it was thought that proteins are transported only in their unfolded state because of the difficulty in maintaining the membrane permeability barrier during the transport of folded proteins. However, it has become apparent that the Tat (twin-arginine translocation) pathway found in prokaryotes and plant chloroplasts is dedicated to the transport of folded proteins. The Tat system is involved in a wide range of biological processes including the biogenesis of metalloproteins, cell division, and bacterial pathogenesis. Using the Tat system of Escherichia coli as our model we have been attempting to understand how the Tat apparatus is able to meet the challenge of transporting structured substrates.
