Shedding light on the “unknome”: Novel approaches to discover the functions of unknown proteins
Speaker: Jörg Stülke (University of Göttingen)
Host: Andreas Peschel
Date & Time: 11.07.2024 | 12:30 – 2 p.m.
Venue: Lecture hall 3M07, GUZ
Public event. No registration needed.
Abstract:
In all organisms, a large fraction of the proteins has no known function. Even in well studied bacteria, this is true for 25 to 30% of all proteins. Importantly, some of these proteins are essential and are thus potential targets for the development of novel antibacterial drugs. We apply a pipeline that starts with the identification of important candidates for research and leads via the generation of unbiased data to some provisional annotation and the integration of all available information to the experimental verification of hypotheses and the ultimate discovery of novel functions. I will discuss the application of this strategy to novel proteins involved in the control of iron homeostasis and fatty acid acquisition. In addition, I will present an approach to identify poorly expressed unknown proteins that are an important reservoir for the adaptation of bacteria to stress conditions.