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Title : Mechanisms of nucleotide-dependent restriction-modification enzymes: the potent bacterial defense against viral infection and horizontal gene transfer..
Speaker : Prof. Saikrishnan Kayarat, IISER Pune.
Date : 19/01/2022, 05:30 PM , Online Mode.
About the speaker:
Saikrishnan Kayarat did his BSc in Physics at the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, followed by an Integrated Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He carried out his postdoctoral research work at the Clare Hall Laboratories, Cancer Research UK, and was a visiting scientist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. In 2010, he joined at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India as an Assistant Professor. By combining biochemical, biophysical and structural biology techniques, including X-ray crystallography and electron cryo-microscopy, his research group has been dissecting the mechanism of DNA cleavage and methylation by the NTP-dependent RM enzymes. Their findings have revealed how the chemical energy released upon NTP hydrolysis is harnessed for DNA cleavage. He is a recipient of the CSIR Shanthi Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Biological Sciences and the S. Ramachandran National Bioscience. He is also the recipient of the Welcome Trust-DBT India Intermediate Fellowship and EMBO Long Term Fellowship Award.
Title of the talk: Mechanisms of nucleotide-dependent restriction-modification enzymes: the potent bacterial defense against viral infection and horizontal gene transfer.
Abstract:
Just like humans have viral infection, bacteria are also infected by viruses called bacteriophages. To prevent infection, bacteria have a variety of specialized defense mechanisms. One of the most prominent of these defense mechanisms is the Nucleoside Triphosphate (NTP) dependent restriction enzymes. These enzymes prevent viral infection by degrading the incoming viral genomic DNA. The same enzymes can also hinder the entry of other foreign DNA into a bacterial cell and thus regulate the biologically important process of horizontal gene transfer. As a consequence, the NTP-dependent RM enzymes can prevent acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes and pathogenicity islands. The mechanism of how these enzymes serve as a potent barrier to foreign DNA is not fully understood. Using biochemical, biophysical and structural biology techniques, we have been dissecting the mechanism of these class of enzymes. Our efforts have resulted in the discovery of new modes of nucleolytic DNA cleavage by enzymes. I will discuss the mechanisms of NTP-dependent RM enzymes and their possible physiological effect.
