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TRR 174:  Spatiotemporal dynamics of bacterial cells

Subject Area Biology
Medicine
Term from 2017 to 2021
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269423233
 
Final Report Year 2022

Final Report Abstract

Bacteria are ubiquitous in the environment and of great ecological, medical and biotechnological importance, thereby influencing many aspects of human life. Over the past three decades, new developments in methods and imaging technologies have enabled unprecedented insights into their cell biology. These advances have led to the realization that bacteria are highly organized entities in which individual components are precisely arranged within the cellular space. The localization patterns observed are often highly dynamic and change over time as a function of the cell cycle or in response to external cues. These spatiotemporal dynamics form the basis of essential cellular processes such as cell growth and division, DNA segregation, cell cycle regulation, cell differentiation, environmental interactions and motility. However, despite the considerable progress made in the field, it is still unclear how this dynamic spatial organization is accomplished and how it has evolved. The research groups within TRR 174 used a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research approach to address these outstanding questions and comprehensively investigate the Spatiotemporal dynamics of bacterial cells. TRR 174 comprised 16 research groups from the Marburg and Munich areas, which all shared a common interest in bacterial cell biology but contributed complementary sets of expertise, ranging from molecular biology, cell biology and genetics over the biochemical, biophysical and structural characterization of proteins to mathematical modeling and synthetic biology. Building on this highly interdisciplinary background, the consortium investigated closely interconnected sets of spatiotemporally organized systems that critically contribute to the function of bacterial cells, with a focus on (i) cell growth, morphogenesis, and division, (ii) DNA organization, segregation and interactions, (iii) the positioning of motility structures and (iv) the assembly dynamics of membrane protein complexes. The central goal of these studies was to understand how local interactions between individual cellular components can give rise to the dynamic three-dimensional organization of bacterial cells. To this end, the consortium identified the components controlling central cellular processes, dissected their collective behavior in vivo and comprehensively analyze their properties and interactions in vitro. In a complementary approach, modeling studies were performed to unravel the emergent properties of the systems under investigation. Finally, reconstitution studies of isolated systems were used as a means to test for the completeness of the understanding gained. Importantly, the research conducted in TRR 174 involved a range of different bacterial model organisms. By studying a defined set of cellular processes in evolutionarily distinct species, it was possible to determine whether spatiotemporally organized systems mediating particular cellular processes relied on similar design principles. Moreover, this comparative approach helped to identify different solutions that nature has evolved to perform given cellular tasks. In the long run, the results obtained by TRR 174 may contribute to the identification of new antibiotic targets or provide the basis for the design of synthetic spatiotemporally organized systems to optimize cells for applied purposes. Altogether, the findings made by TRR 174 led to 104 research papers in internationally renowned and peer-reviewed scientific journals. Importantly, 35 publications resulted from collaborative projects conducted by two or more research groups. To facilitate the exchange of results and ideas with the international scientific community, TRR 174 hosted 58 internationally renowned scientists, who gave guess lectures on cutting-edge findings in the research fields covered by the consortium. Moreover, it organized two large international conferences in the field of bacterial cell biology and provided organizational and financial support for various other scientific symposia, workshops and summer schools. TRR 174 also participated in a variety of outreach activities to convey its findings to the general public. The collaborative work of TRR 174 was facilitated by comprehensive support structures that fostered interactions among the participating research groups and promoted the development of early-career researchers into independent scientists ready to take the next steps of their professional career. In total, 47 doctoral candidates conducted their thesis work in the framework of TRR 174, with a balanced gender ratio (47% female). Their advanced training was ensured by a series of activities, including guest lectures, progress seminars, retreats, scientific and transferable-skills workshops and industry visits. Gender equality and family friendliness were promoted through various support measures, gender awareness workshops and counseling sessions specifically tailored to the needs of female scientists. Collectively, the activities of TRR 174 made an important contribution to understanding the mechanisms that govern the spatiotemporal dynamics of cellular processes in bacteria. The consortium has left a highly visible footprint in its research field, fostered a new generation of critically thinking, broadly trained scientists, and laid a solid foundation for continuous close collaborations among the participating research groups.

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