551-1421-00L The Mechanisms of Natural Transformation in Competent Gram-Negative Bacteria
| Semester | Autumn Semester 2023 |
| Lecturers | M. Hospenthal |
| Periodicity | yearly recurring course |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Comment | Number of participants limited to 5. The enrolment is done by the D-BIOL study administration. |
| Abstract | Students will carry out defined research projects related to the current research topics of the Hospenthal group. The topics will include protein expression of pilins and/or other competence proteins from Gram-negative bacteria, protein purification using affinity chromatography, crystallisation experiments and analysis of assembled pili by electron microscopy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The course should enable students to understand concepts of protein expression, purification and the characterisation of biomolecular interactions. In addition, students will learn some basic principles of X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The students will be tutored in their experimental work by an experienced doctoral student. The course will also include a short lecture delivered by M. Hospenthal, providing the theoretical background for the experimental work. Throughout the course, students will receive exercises that further help to explain the theory of the practical work, as well as literature research tasks. Participation in the following Hospenthal lab projects will be possible: • Purification, biophysical characterisation and structure determination of pilins • Purification, biophysical characterisation and structure determination of proteins and protein complexes involved in natural transformation. Experimental work on this project involves: • Cloning and mutagenesis • Recombinant or endogenous protein production in E. coli or Legionella • Protein purification by affinity chromatography (other chromatographic purification techniques will also be discussed) • Protein crystallisation and crystal optimisation • Visualisation of bacterial pili by electron microscopy (negative stain or cryo electron microscopy) • DNA binding experiments • Enzymatic activity measurements • In silico structural analyses using PyMOL and Chimera | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Any required reading of literature will be discussed at the beginning of the course. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | There are no special requirements for this course. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Competencies |
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