Open discussion platform of the COST action EuroMicropH. This discussion series is intended to stimulate an exchange on the different aspects of how microorganisms react to low pH conditions and why people are interested to investigate this subject.
Please register here for the upcoming meeting. To access the session, please follow the zoom link below.
10.06.2022 16:00 CEST
Join Zoom-Meeting
https://tuwien.zoom.us/j/92583825597
Meeting-ID: 925 8382 5597
Agenda
Chair
Matthias Steiger , TU Wien, Austria, Vienna
Programm
16:00 Welcome
16:05 Isabel Soares-Silva, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Uncovering structure-function relationships of carboxylic acids plasma membrane transporters
16:30 Aleksandra Djukić-Vuković, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Styliani Roufou, University of Malta, Malta
ITC grants: EuroMicropH’s financial tool for your career development
Would you like to contribute to an upcoming Acidic Friday meeting?
Please submit your talk here.
Abstracts
Uncovering structure-function relationships of carboxylic acids plasma membrane transporters
Isabel Soares-Silva
Organic acids display great applicability in the polymer, food, agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors. Fermentation-derived carboxylic acids, e.g. succinic, lactic, and citric acid, are already commercially available. However, the current portfolio is quite limited. One of the major bottlenecks for efficient and cost-effective bioproduction is molecule export through the microbial plasma membrane. In recent years, transporter engineering has been the focus of several studies, but the optimization of cell membrane transporters for industrial organic acid production is still at an early stage. This is due to the fact that the functional and structural characterization of membrane proteins is a cumbersome process. In our group, we tackle such challenges by uncovering novel plasma membrane transporter proteins to enhance the tolerance to carboxylic acids, increase production yields, and facilitate downstream processing. In addition, through the use of combined approaches of 3D-structure prediction, molecular docking studies, phylogenetic analysis and site-directed mutagenesis, we have characterized structure-function relationships of several carboxylate transporters of the AceTr and SHS families. This has resulted in transporters with altered specificity, kinetics, and stability, which can ultimately lead to the development of robust microbial cell factories for organic acid bioproduction.
ITC grants: EuroMicropH’s financial tool for your career development
Aleksandra Djukić-Vuković
The ITC grants are a financial instrument developed by the COST Association to support
young researchers under 40 years of age from inclusive target countries (ITC) and near neighbor countries (NNC) to attend scientific
conferences around the world related to the EuroMicropH theme. This presentation
will include experiences of previous ITC fellows and an
opportunity to learn how we can support you in presenting your work at
excellent scientific conferences.
