Grups de recerca
22
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Seminari: Joel Stavans
El proper dilluns tindrem l'oportunitat de tornar a escoltar el Prof. Joel Stavans que ens parlarà de processos durant la transferència horitzontal de gens en bacteris. Fins aleshores!
Target search processes during horizontal gene transfer in bacteria
Joel Stavans (joel.stavans@weizmann.ac.il)
The Siegried and Irma Ullman Professorial Chair, Faculty of Physics, Department of Physics of Complex Systems. Weizmann Institute of Science.
In the absence of sex as in higher organisms such as mammals and plants, bacteria engage in horizontal gene transfer processes in order to acquire new beneficial traits and drive their genetic diversity in one stroke. Often, exogenous, imported DNA integrates into the genome of a bacterial host at unique sites that are found within physiologically relevant times, among millions of possible sites on the host’s genome. Here we address the question of what are the search mechanisms that allow these unique sites to be found efficiently, within the complex interior of a bacterial cell in the case of conjugation. I will present experimental results on the search of integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) for their integration site in the genome of B. subtilis cells. Our experiments were carried out by following in real time the search process at the level of individual molecules within single cells.
