The main interest of the group is the understanding of life under extreme conditions. Therefore, we study the virus φCh1 as a model system for gene regulation of haloalkaliphilic Archaea facing two extremes: high pH and salt.This organism has an optimal growth at 3.5M NaCl and at a pH of 9.5. The virus itself is used as a model system to analyze gene expression in haloalkaliphilic organisms, facing with two extremes: a high pH and high concentrations of salt. The sequence of φCh1, infecting the haloalkaliphilic archaeon Natrialba magadii, contains an open reading frame (int1) in the central part of its genome that belongs to the λ integrase family of site-specific recombinases. The flanking sequences of int1 contain several direct repeats of 30 bp in length (IR-L and IR-R), which are orientated in an inverted direction. The invertible region encodes two structural proteins (gp34 and gp36, encoded by ORF34 and ORF36) expected to represent the viral tail fibre proteins.
Genome map of ChaoS9 compared to φCh1 and φH1. (a) Cumulative AT-skew of all three virus genomes. (b) Genome map of phiCh1; (c) Genome map of ChaoS9; (d) Genome map of phiH1. Scale bar at bottom shows length, in kb. Pink shading between genome maps indicates similarity of encoded proteins (tBLASTx) at ≥ 30% amino acid identity level. Colour coding of genes indicates those encoding proteins with predicted (or experimentally determined) functions. Some of these genes are labeled along the gene maps.
Haloarchaeal myovirus ?Ch1 harbours a phase variation system for the production of protein variants with distinct cell surface adhesion specificities.
Klein, R; Rössler, N; Iro, M; Scholz, H; Witte, A
Antimicrobial activity of a chimeric enzybiotic towards Staphylococcus aureus.
Manoharadas, Salim; Witte, Angela; Bläsi, Udo
Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of bacteria belonging to the Ochrobactrum-Brucella group by recA and 16S rRNA gene-based comparative sequence analysis.
Scholz, Holger C; Al Dahouk, Sascha; Tomaso, Herbert; Neubauer, Heinrich; Witte, Angela; Schloter, Michael; Kämpfer, Peter; Falsen, Enevold; Pfeffer, Martin; Engel, Marion
Dissecting the turgor sensing mechanisms in the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae
Pikobodies: What does it take to bioengineer NLR immune receptor-nanobody fusions
scRNA and phylogenetics
Gene regulatory mechanisms governing human development, evolution and variation
Regulation of Cerebral Cortex Morphogenesis by Migrating Cells
Phage therapy for treating bacterial infections: a double-edged sword
Suckers and segments of the octopus arm
Using the house mouse radiation to study the rapid evolution of genes and genetic processes
CRISPR jumps ahead: mechanistic insights into CRISPR-associated transposons
SLiMs and SHelMs: Decoding how short linear and helical motifs direct PPP specificity to direct signaling
Title to be announced
Enigmatic evolutionary origin and multipotency of the neural crest cells - major drivers of vertebrate evolution
Visualising mitotic chromosomes and nuclear dynamics by correlative light and electron microscopy
Engineered nanocarriers for imaging of small proteins by CryoEM
Bacterial cell envelope homeostasis at the (post)transcriptional level
Title to be announced
Hydrologic extremes alter mechanisms and pathways of carbon export from mountainous floodplain soils
Dissecting post-transcriptional gene expression regulation in humans and viruses
Polyploidy and rediploidisation in stressful times
Prdm9 control of meiotic synapsis of homologs in intersubspecific hybrids
Title to be announced
RNA virus from museum specimens
Programmed DNA double-strand breaks during meiosis: Mechanism and evolution
Title to be announced