Grant number: 2016/21/N/NZ1/00275
Funded by:
Project description:
The main aim of the project is to answer the questions of whether and how plasmids may influence the cell biology, physiology and metabolism of psychrophilic bacterium Psychrobacter sp. ANT_AH3 and what is their role in shaping of the host genome, and in particular formation of the multi-replicon genome. As an object of the studies an Antarctic bacterium, Psychrobacter sp. ANT_AH3 was selected. It carries as many as eleven plasmids. In this project we plan structural and functional analysis of plasmids’ genetic modules, with particular attention to (as it seems operating oppositely) two types of systems i.e.: (i) the type II restriction-modification (R-M) systems (identified within plasmids pA3H9 and pA3H10), which by definition protect the cell against the penetration of the exogenous DNA, and (ii) gene dprA (from plasmid pA3H5) encoding a protein increasing a competence state and protecting exogenous DNA, which appears in the cytoplasm of the host. We will also try to investigate if the genes encoding hypothetical proteins of unknown function present within these plasmids are influencing the physiology and fitness of the host.
