Seminar: Molecular Machines for Protein Targeting and Membrane Assembly

09 Oct 2008

Thursday 9 October 2008

Speaker: Professor Trevor Lithgow, ARC Federation Fellow, Monash University

Venue: Bio21 Institute Auditorium, 30 Flemington Road, Parkville

Time: 4.00 to 5.00 pm

Refreshments provided following seminar, in Auditorium foyer.

No RSVP Required. All welcome.

Enquiries: Bio21-reception@unimelb.edu.au or phone: 834 42220 

Seminar is part of the Bio21 Institute Seminar Series.

Abstract: There are two essential compartments in our cells: the nucleus and mitochondria. Mitochondria evolved from an ancient bacterium and some of the cell biology of this ancestral bacterium remains in place today. Correctly targeting protein molecules into the membranes and spaces within mitochondria and bacteria is an essential process. The pathway for protein assembly into mitochondrial outer membranes is similar to the process at work in bacterial outer membranes, and "compare-and-contrast" studies are proving a new and general understanding of how proteins are folded up and inserted into membranes. Using Caulobacter cresecentus as a model for the bacterial ancestor of mitochondria, we are detailing mechanisms behind membrane assembly. Serendipitously, comparative studies such as these are shedding new light on how bacterial proteins are transported out of pathogenic species of bacteria and into the mitochondria of human cells in the course of bacterial infections.

Bio: Trevor Lithgow is an ARC Federation Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Monash University. His postdoctoral work at the University of Basel focused on determining how proteins are transported to mitochondria. The insights from this early work were published in high-profile papers and lead to a personal award at the White House on the 10th Anniversary of the Human Science Frontiers Program and the Beckman-Coulter Discovery Science Award from the Australian Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. The Lithgow lab is internationally regarded in the discovery and understanding of the molecular machines used to transport proteins and, thereby, build mitochondria. Most recently, in work done at the Bio21 Institute in collaboration with Vladimir Likic, sophisticated statistical methods were developed to identify members of protein families so that the understanding of the protein transport pathway in the model fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae could be taken to a comprehensive understanding of the pathways found in all organisms.