[SCAN] How the radiation resistant bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans deals with stress conditions: insights into the manganese homeostasis

Scan Seminar

Title: How the radiation resistant bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans deals with stress conditions: insights into the manganese homeostasis

Speaker: Célia Romão

From: Structural Genomics Lab, ITQB

Abstract:

Deinococcus radiodurans is an aerobic gram-positive bacterium that can survive exposure to extreme conditions such as high doses of radiation, desiccation and starvation. The high manganese intracellular levels observed in D.radiodurans have been proposed to contribute to its radiation resistance. It has been suggested that accumulation of this metal in D.radiodurans occurs as non-protein complexes of manganese and helps the enzymatic scavenging systems against reactive oxygen species to protect proteins from oxidation, which are currently considered the major targets for degradation. The current knowledge of Mn homeostasis in D.radiodurans is not extensive, therefore this bacterium represents an excellent model organism for understanding the role of manganese as an antioxidant protection system.
We have focused our studies on the DNA binding proteins from starved cells (Dps): Dps1 (dr2263) and Dps2 (drB0092). Our goal over the last years has been to understand the mechanisms of Dps for metal storage/release and DNA interaction/protection, and ultimately to correlate them with the manganese homeostasis in D.radiodurans.