It is all under control: Tuning the activity of the osmoregulatory ABC-importer Op

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In Dutch a saying goes: ‘putting salt on every snail’ (equivalent to the English saying ‘splitting hairs’). The saying originates from the practice to kill snails by sprinkling salt all over them. A high salt concentration, dehydrates the snail and kills it. Exactly this principle – which is called osmosis – is central to this thesis. We studied how bacteria deal with osmotic stress. The research was fundamental of nature and is important, because bacteria, unlike snails, can survive big osmotic fluctuations. Water can freely leave and enter a bacterial cell, but most other compounds (solutes) cannot. To counter the loss of water in salty environments, bacteria actively import compounds that hold the water inside the cell. This is done by protein pumps which reside at the border of the inside of the cell and the outside environment, the cell membrane. One very important protein pump, that counters the loss of water, is OpuA. It imports the molecule glycine betaine, which facilitates the resorption of water. This pump has to be tightly regulated, because too much activity will lead to bursting of the cell, whereas too little activity makes the bacteria sensitive to osmotic stress. In this thesis, we made a significant step in understanding the molecular details of OpuA-mediated glycine betaine transport. The acquired knowledge contributes to a better understanding of how bacteria survive large osmotic fluctuations during infection or growth under extreme industrial conditions.
Originele taal-2English
KwalificatieDoctor of Philosophy
Toekennende instantie
  • Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Begeleider(s)/adviseur
  • Poolman, Berend, Supervisor
  • Batista Paulino, Cristina, Co-supervisor
Datum van toekenning14-mei-2024
Plaats van publicatie[Groningen]
Uitgever
DOI's
StatusPublished - 2024

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