Invitation to PC-TC Colloquium
Presented by
Prof. Dr. Roland L. Knorr
Interfacial Cell Biology, Integrative Research Institute for the Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Subject:
"Intracellular interfaces and their reshaping during organelle morphogenesis"
Wednesday, January 19th 2022, 16:15 hours
Only online via Webex:
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https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin-en/j.php?MTID=m05abbe7f1c70a323b4a75485013935f7
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Meeting number (access code): 2733 890 4936
Meeting password: gEXGYiJN754
Abstract
Compartmentalisation is essential for eukaryotic cell function, allowing the division of metabolic and regulatory processes into membrane-bound, specialised compartments, such as organelles. In recent years, intracellular phase separation has garnered much attention as a non-membrane means of organising components through the formation of droplet-like compartments with liquid-like properties, which are functionally implicated in both health and disease.
Here, we investigate the mechanism of wetting-mediated droplet sequestration during autophagy, a highly-conserved degradation system in which membrane sheets expand and bend to isolate portions of the cell interior inside autophagosomes [Nature 2020, 2021]. Further, we demonstrate that wetting also mediates embryonic plant vacuole remodelling [PNAS, JCB 2021]. I propose that formation of autophagosomes and vacuole remodelling represent a novel class of cellular processes that are driven by by interfacial phenomena