Liliana Fernandes da Costa
The outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is a unique asymmetric bilayer, forming an effective penetration barrier against toxic compounds. While the pathways that mediate retrograde lipid transport are well researched, it remains elusive how phospholipids are transported from the inner membrane to the outer membrane. Intriguingly, the RND transporter CltA from the Gram-negative bacterium Campylobacter jejuni is believed to support anterograde lipid transport with the same operon-derived lipid transfer proteins MlaA and MlaC. In view of this, I aim to structurally elucidate and define the role of this putative lipid transfer system for outer membrane homeostasis using biochemical techniques combined with structural biology.
Luise Stadler
One of the primary defence mechanisms that gram-negative bacteria have developed against antibiotics is an asymmetric outer lipid bilayer. This bilayer features phospholipids in the inner leaflet and lipopolysaccharides in the outer leaflet, effectively preventing the entry of lipophilic toxic compounds. It is still unclear how phospholipids transverse the periplasm, however the translocation and assembly module (TAM) is proposed to be a key player in this process, among other AsmA-like proteins.In my PhD project, I aim to investigate the membrane homeostasis and fluidity in TAM deficient strains utilizing Fluorescence microscopy, Lipidomics and Solid-State NMR.