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We all want to have a long life in good health. This is impossible without high quality food. Our group is interested in finding out how plants can grow well, even if environmental conditions are not optimal. This knowledge can help to provide farmers of the future with improved seed material for high quality and quantity harvests, as a basis for healthy human nutrition.
Adaptation of plants to changing environmental conditions requires sophisticated signal transduction and compensation strategies. Virtually all signal transduction pathways encompass steps to modify proteins already present in the cell. Such posttranslational modifications can occur by attaching a small protein to the substrate. The modifier proteins ubiquitin and small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) are the focus of our research. We use biochemical and genetic tools to study modification pathways, in particular the N-degron (formerly N-end rule) pathway for ubiquitin conjugation, and a recently discovered pathway that links several SUMO proteins as a chain to the substrate. Both pathways have important functions in signal transduction for environmental adaptation.
Andreas Bachmair studied in Vienna, where he also got his PhD (with Helmut Ruis, 1984). After a postdoctoral stay with Alex Varshavsky (MIT, Cambridge, USA; 1985-1988), he stayed at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (Cologne, Germany) as a postdoc with Jeff Schell (1988-1991) and then joined the Institute of Botany of the University of Vienna (1991-2002). He moved to the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (Cologne, Germany) as a group leader (2002-2008), before taking an Associate Professor position at the Max Perutz Labs. Since 2019, he is a full professor at the Max Perutz Labs.
The amino terminus of a protein is frequently modified, e.g. by addition of acetyl groups, or by proteolytic cleavage to generate the mature protein, or a protein variant. So-called N-recognins bind to amino termini to influence the protein half life. We are interested in N-recognins for amino-terminal Leu in plants. We identified mutants that stabilize a model protein with Leu amino terminus. Mutated genes are investigated to understand the biological significance of this protein degradation pathway.
Proteins can be covalently linked to SUMO. In most cases, one SUMO moiety is added. We have recently discovered that the SUMO conjugation machinery chooses specific proteins for attachment of SUMO chains, whereas other substrates obtain only single SUMO moieties (Tomanov et al., 2018, Biochem J 475: 61-68). A SUMO chain probably leads to proteolytic destruction of the substrate, due to the existence of SUMO chain binding ubiquitin ligases. We are studying this process with the help of mutants and in vitro reconstruction of the reaction.
A Yeast-Based Functional Assay to Study Plant N-Degron N-Recognin Interactions
Kozlic, Aida; Winter, Nikola; Telser, Theresia; Reimann, Jakob; Rose, Katrin; Nehlin, Lilian; Berckhan, Sophie; Sharma, Gunjan; Dambire, Charlene; Boeckx, Tinne; Holdsworth, Michael J.; Bachmair, Andreas
Cellular Control of Protein Turnover via the Modification of the Amino Terminus.
Winter, Nikola; Novatchkova, Maria; Bachmair, Andreas
The Scope, Functions, and Dynamics of Posttranslational Protein Modifications.
Millar, A Harvey; Heazlewood, Joshua L; Giglione, Carmela; Holdsworth, Michael J; Bachmair, Andreas; Schulze, Waltraud X
Distinct branches of the N-end rule pathway modulate the plant immune response.
Vicente, Jorge; Mendiondo, Guillermina M; Pauwels, Jarne; Pastor, Victoria; Izquierdo, Yovanny; Naumann, Christin; Movahedi, Mahsa; Rooney, Daniel; Gibbs, Daniel J; Smart, Katherine; Bachmair, Andreas; Gray, Julie E; Dissmeyer, Nico; Castresana, Carmen; Ray, Rumiana V; Gevaert, Kris; Holdsworth, Michael J
Sumoylation and phosphorylation: hidden and overt links.
Tomanov, Konstantin; Nukarinen, Ella; Vicente, Jorge; Mendiondo, Guillermina M; Winter, Nikola; Nehlin, Lilian; Weckwerth, Wolfram; Holdsworth, Michael J; Teige, Markus; Bachmair, Andreas
SUMO chain formation relies on the amino-terminal region of SUMO-conjugating enzyme and has dedicated substrates in plants.
Tomanov, Konstantin; Nehlin, Lilian; Ziba, Ionida; Bachmair, Andreas
FWF Special Research Program (SFB) F 7904 TP4 N-degron pathways in plants
Project title: “Novel tasks of the plant N-end rule degradation pathway" (P 31114)”
The project supports research on the N-end rule pathway. One specific research question is how proteins that carry an amino-terminal Leucine are degraded in plants.
The project supports training of PhD students in "Molecular Mechanisms to Improve Plant Resilience" (see: mentor.univie.ac.at).
Nutrient-regulated control of lysosome function by signaling lipid conversion
Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Terrestrial Ecosystems: Assessing Biogeochemical Processes in Soils
Protein homeostasis and lifelong cell maintenance
Dissecting the turgor sensing mechanisms in the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae
Pikobodies: What does it take to bioengineer NLR immune receptor-nanobody fusions
When all is lost? Measuring historical signals
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
Visualising mitotic chromosomes and nuclear dynamics by correlative light and electron microscopy
Enigmatic evolutionary origin and multipotency of the neural crest cells - major drivers of vertebrate evolution
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