Speaker: Lilach Sheine. University of Glasgow, UK
Host: Oliver Billker, MIMS
Venue: Major Groove, NUS
Mitochondrial ribosomes (mitoribosomes) are essential, and their function of synthesising mitochondrial proteins is universal. The core of almost all mitoribosomes is formed from a small number of long and self-folding rRNA molecules. In contrast, the mitoribosome of the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii assembles from over 50 extremely short rRNA molecules. We use cryo-EM to discover the features that enable this unusual mitoribosome to perform its function. By doing so we revealed novel cell-biology and ribosome biology principles, and we used genetic manipulation and biochemical analysis to provided validation for the corresponding observations.
Some of the new features found seem to have co-evolved with apicomplexan traits such as the unusually shuffled mitochondrial genome of Toxoplasma, and the expanded families of mitochondrial RNA binding proteins and of ApiAP2 transcription factors in apicomplexan and related organisms.
The talk will discuss how those features are intersected with the mitoribosome and speculate on their functional links.
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/staff/lilachsheiner/