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Staff photo Gemma Atkinson

Gemma Atkinson

Assistant professor who studies the functional evolution of proteins that interact with the ribosome, and that are involved in antibiotic resistance and response to stress.

Contact

E-mail
gemma.atkinson@umu.se
Phone
+46 90 785 08 15

Works at

Affiliation
Assistant professor at Department of Molecular Biology Units: Group Gemma Atkinson
Location
6K och 6L, Sjukhusområdet Umeå universitet, 901 87 Umeå

The focus of our research is the evolution of protein function and structure. We’re interested in how evolutionary analyses can be combined with experimental research to reconstruct functional evolution of proteins, and to generate testable hypotheses about unknown aspects of protein function.

Ongoing projects in the group:

  • Evolution and function of ABCF translation and antibiotic resistance factors in eukaryotes and bacteria
  • Functional diversity of small alarmone (ppGpp) synthetases in bacteria and bacteriophages
  • Analysis of ribosome profiling data to elucidate the in vivo role of yeast translation factors
  • Prediction and verification of novel toxin-antitoxin systems
  • Development of bioinformatics tools for comparative evolutionary sequence analysis

Please visit our website for more information about my research group and ongoing projects: https://atkinson-lab.com

2020
A widespread toxin-antitoxin system exploiting growth control via alarmone signaling
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, National Academy of Sciences 2020, Vol. 117, (19) : 10500-10510
Jimmy, Steffi; Saha, Chayan Kumar; Kurata, Tatsuaki; et al.
2020
Elevated levels of VCA0117 in response to external signals activates type VI secretion in Vibrio cholerae A1552
Environmental Microbiology
Seibt, Henrikhese0011; Aung, Kyaw Min; Ishikawa, Takahiko; et al.
2020
The C-Terminal RRM/ACT Domain Is Crucial for Fine-Tuning the Activation of 'Long' RelA-SpoT Homolog Enzymes by Ribosomal Complexes
Frontiers in Microbiology, Frontiers Media S.A. 2020, Vol. 11
Takada, Hiraku; Roghanian, Mohammad; Murina, Victoriia; et al.
2020
Target protection as a key antibiotic resistance mechanism
Nature Reviews Microbiology
Wilson, Daniel N.; Hauryliuk, Vasili; Atkinson, Gemma C.; et al.
2019
Ribosome profiling analysis of eEF3-depleted Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group 2019, Vol. 9
Kasari, Villu; Margus, Tonu; Atkinson, Gemma C.; et al.
2019
A role for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ABCF protein New1 in translation termination/recycling
Nucleic Acids Research, Oxford University Press 2019, Vol. 47, (16) : 8807-8820
Kasari, Villu; Pochopien, Agnieszka A.; Margus, Tonu; et al.
2019
ABCF ATPases Involved in Protein Synthesis, Ribosome Assembly and Antibiotic Resistance: Structural and Functional Diversification across the Tree of Life
Journal of Molecular Biology, Elsevier 2019, Vol. 431, (18) : 3568-3590
Murina, Victoriia; Kasari, Marje; Takada, Hiraku; et al.
2018
Structural basis for antibiotic resistance mediated by the Bacillus subtilis ABCF ATPase VmlR
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, National Academy of Sciences 2018, Vol. 115, (36) : 8978-8983
Crowe-McAuliffe, Caillan; Graf, Michael; Huter, Paul; et al.
2018
Antibiotic resistance ABCF proteins reset the peptidyl transferase centre of the ribosome to counter translational arrest
Nucleic Acids Research, Oxford University Press 2018, Vol. 46, (7) : 3753-3763
Murina, Victoriia; Kasari, Marje; Hauryliuk, Vasili; et al.
2017
Small Alarmone Synthetases as novel bacterial RNA-binding proteins
RNA Biology, Taylor & Francis 2017, Vol. 14, (12) : 1695-1699
Hauryliuk, Vasili; Atkinson, Gemma C.
2016
Aim-less translation: loss of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial translation initiation factor mIF3/Aim23 leads to unbalanced protein synthesis
Scientific Reports, Vol. 6
Kuzmenko, Anton; Derbikova, Ksenia; Salvatori, Roger; et al.
2015
The evolutionary and functional diversity of classical and lesser-known cytoplasmic and organellar translational GTPases across the tree of life
BMC Genomics, Vol. 16
Atkinson, Gemma Catherine
2015
Recent functional insights into the role of (p)ppGpp in bacterial physiology
Nature Reviews Microbiology, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2015, Vol. 13, (5) : 298-309
Hauryliuk, Vasili; Atkinson, Gemma C.; Murakami, Katsuhiko S.; et al.
2014
An evolutionary ratchet leading to loss of elongation factors in eukaryotes
BMC Evolutionary Biology, Vol. 14 : 35-
Atkinson, Gemma C.; Kuzmenko, Anton; Chicherin, Ivan; et al.
2014
Macrolide antibiotics allosterically predispose the ribosome for translation arrest
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, National Academy of Sciences 2014, Vol. 111, (27) : 9804-9809
Sothiselvam, Shanmugapriya; Liu, Bo; Han, Wei; et al.
2014
Translational stalling at polyproline stretches is modulated by the sequence context upstream of the stall site
Nucleic Acids Research, Oxford University Press 2014, Vol. 42, (16) : 10711-10719
Starosta, Agata L.; Lassak, Jürgen; Peil, Lauri; et al.
2014
A conserved proline triplet in Val-tRNA synthetase and the origin of elongation factor P
Cell reports, Cell Press 2014, Vol. 9, (2) : 476-483
Starosta, Agata L; Lassak, Jürgen; Peil, Lauri; et al.
View publications in DiVA

Research groups

Head of research
Gemma Atkinson group