SCAN: From in vivo NMR to hyperthermophiles as sources of new protein stabilizers
Helena Santos, Head of Laboratory Cell Physiology & NMR
| When |
19 Dec, 2007
from
12:00 pm to 01:00 pm |
|---|---|
| Where | ITQB Auditorium |
| Speaker(s) |
Helena Santos Head of Laboratory Cell Physiology & NMR |
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Abstract
I started my research group in 1986 with a single Ph. D. student (Paula Fareleira) working in a topic that, at the time, was very challenging: development of NMR methods to study living cells. And it was this habit of looking at whole cells that led to the most active line of research in my team today: adaptation of marine hyperthermophiles to very hot environments.
Many thermophiles and hyperthermophiles have been isolated both from fresh and seawater sources. Compatible solute accumulation occurs not only in response to an increase in the external salinity, but also in response to supraoptimal growth temperatures. The latter observation seems rather intriguing, especially if we consider that the external water activity remains practically unaltered when the temperature is raised. On the other hand, the superior protective effect of compatible solutes from (hyper)thermophiles on cellular structures (namely proteins) is well documented. From these two observations the inference of a link between compatible solute accumulation by (hyper)thermophiles and structural protection against heat damage appears inevitable. And if such a correlation is valid, a number of questions immediately arise:
Do thermophiles accumulate the same solutes that are used by mesophiles for osmoadaptation? What is the nature of eventual new solutes? Are they better suited for protection against heat damage? What is their mode of action? Which novel pathways are used for their synthesis? Do they accumulate to different extent in response to different stress factors? How is their accumulation regulated?
These are the questions that my team has addressed since 1995. Unfortunately, we may still not have the answers to many of these questions, but it is rewarding that knowledge in this area has advanced considerably in the last years, from a time when solutes from (hyper)thermophiles were largely unknown to the present day when many unsuspected biomolecules have been identified, several biosynthetic routes discovered and the thermo-protecting properties of these compounds well illustrated, with potential application in fields ranging from cosmetics to diagnosis and medicine.
