Research projects of current students
- Carina Holkenbrink
- Start Date: October 2010
- Nationality: German
- Bachelor Thesis:
Taxonomic characterization of novel species belonging to the genus Rhodopirellula (2008) MPI for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany
- Master Thesis:
Thiotrophic sulfur metabolism in green sulfur bacteria” (2010) University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Research group:
AG Higgs, Department of Ecophysiology, MPI
- Research project description:
My PhD project focuses on the molecular basis of bacterial social behavior in the model organism Myxococcus xanthus. Upon nutrient starvation M. Xanthus cell communities undergo a developmental program resulting in the formation of resistant spores, which is characterized by multicellular behavior. During the developmental program the cells receive and integrate signals, which lead to the determination of three different cell fates (programmed cell death, peripheral rods and spores). In my studies I try to investigate the role of different key regulator proteins within this signal network. Beyond those proteins is the mRNA interferase MazF, which has been suggested to be responsible for programmed cell death in several prokaryotes. Multicellular behavior, so the joint action of cells within species and beyond specie borders (e.g. biofilms, phototrophic consortia), and the programmed lysis of cells have been described for several prokaryotes. By investigating those mechanism in M. xanthus I will try to contribute to a better understanding of those phenomena in other bacteria.
