SCIENCE AT THE EDGE SEMINAR

QB/GEDD

Friday, March 14 at 11:30am

Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg.

Refreshments at 11:15

Amy Schmid

Department of Biology

Duke University

Surviving the Outer Limits: Gene Regulatory Network Dynamics in Archaeal Extremophiles

Extremophiles are a diverse group of microorganisms that thrive under high pressure, boiling or freezing temperatures, and saturated salt. Even more remarkable than their survival at these extremes is the adaptability of these organisms during wide variation in environmental variables (e.g. survival from 2-5M NaCl). Many known extremophiles are members of the archaeal domain of life. How multiple extreme environmental signals are integrated and decoded to enact dynamic physiological adjustment remains unclear. Previous work to address this question in hypersaline adapted archaea has shown that gene regulatory networks play a pivotal role. To shed light the molecluar function of transcription factors (TFs) and how they work together dynamically to enable survival, we take a systems approach that integrates genome-wide time course datasets into predictive computational models. Our results suggest that archaeal regulatory networks possess emergent properties conserved with the eukaryotic and bacterial domains, including combinatorial control and feed-forward loops. In contrast, extensive TF-TF cross-talk detected in archaeal networks, perhaps serving to coordinate between extreme stress responses, differs from the topology of known bacterial networks. We discuss these properties using examples from our work on archaeal TFs that govern the response to nutrient starvation and extreme oxidative damage.

Helen Geiger

Quantitative Biology Graduate Program and

Gene Expression in Development and Disease

Biochemistry

603 Wilson Road, Room 212

East Lansing, MI   48824

Email: [log in to unmask]

Phone:  517-432-9895

QB Website: http://www.qbi.msu.edu/

GEDD Website: http://www.gedd.msu.edu/