Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

Researchers develop a new method for the sustainable use of carbon dioxide

Reconstructed protein sequences in cyanobacteria reveal that protein interactions can evolve without direct selection pressure

Implementation of a newly discovered metabolic pathway increases the CO₂ efficiency of PET-utilizing bacteria

Researchers found missing links for the in vitro biosynthesis of [Fe]-hydrogenase

Genome mining uncovers a widespread class of natural products that could be candidates for future drugs

Over 50 million genes and 40,000 proteins: combing through international databases for likely candidates, Tobias Erb and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg were faced with an overwhelming choice. In the end, the scientists picked out just 17 enzymes for the first synthetic metabolic pathway that is able to convert carbon dioxide into other organic molecules. Now they have to show that the cycle they sketched out on the drawing board also works in living cells.

Ustilago maydis is one of numerous fungal pathogens that destroy large quantities of crops worldwide each year. Its highly specific interaction with the host plant maize is a valuable model system for studying molecular details of fungal-plant interactions. We found a fungal complex of seven proteins forming a structure with an essential role in disease development. Our findings potentially a fungal complex of seven proteins forming a structure with an essential role in disease development. Our findings potentially open up novel approaches to plant protection.

Bacteria such as Salmonella or Yersinia are equipped with tiny "injection needles" for shooting proteins into their host cells. For years, researchers have thought of using bacterial injection devices to introduce proteins into eukaryotic cells. We now succeeded in controlling the injection system optogenetically by using light as a trigger, enabling its targeted utilization in biotechnological or medical applications.

Glycolic acid is a direct by-product of photosynthesis and one of the most important compounds in the carbon cycle of the oceans. Though marine bacteria convert some of its carbon back into carbon dioxide, the exact metabolic pathways remained largely unknown. We rediscovered a long forgotten pathway, the BHA cycle. This cycle was overlooked so far, but actually represents the major pathway for glycolic acid degradation in ubiquitous marine Proteobacteria. Its detailed and multidisciplinary elucidation enables reassessment of the global carbon dioxide balance.

Single-molecule localization microscopy offers unprecedented insights into living cells. In practice, however, many difficulties persist. By improving an important group of fluorophores, we were able to significantly reduce the damage the method causes in the imaged cells and to establish a novel, aberration-free multi-color strategy. This enables, among other things, the four-dimensional reconstruction of multi-protein-complexes such as the kinetochore in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Methane is an end product of anaerobic degradation of organic materials and is a potent greenhouse gas. Roughly, half of the world-wide methane emission is biologically performed by methanogenic archaea. We are interested in the enzymes involved in hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Here, we report on the crystal structure of the formyl-methanofuran dehydrogenase (Fwd) and heterodisulfide-reductase/hydrogenase complexes (Hdr/Mvh). These enzyme complexes are involved in the sequential reactions of ferredoxin reduction and CO₂-reduction/fixation within the methanogenic pathway.