Department of Microbiology & Immunology Programme
Seminar Series …March 2017
Day / Date / Time:
Tuesday
th
7 March 2017
12pm - 1pm
Bacterial Lipid Trafficking and
Outer Membrane Homeostasis
Dr Chng Shu Sin
Venue:
Department of
Microbiology and
Immunology
Seminar Room
@
NUS
5 Science Drive 2,
Block MD4, Level 2,
Singapore 117545
Convener:
Dr John Chen
ALL ARE
WELCOME
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
Faculty of Science
National University of Singapore
Abstract
Diderm bacteria, such as Gram-negative bacteria and mycobacteria, contain two
lipid bilayers in their cellular envelopes – an inner membrane (IM) comprising
mostly of phospholipids (PLs), and an outer membrane (OM) that additionally
contains unique glycolipids (lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in Gram-negative bacteria
and mycolic acids in mycobacteria). The OM is essential for growth in these
organisms. Furthermore, the OM serves as an effective permeability barrier that in
part allows Gram-negative bacteria and mycobacteria to survive in harsh
environments, and renders them intrinsically resistant to many antibiotics. Despite
the importance of the OMs in these bacteria, the processes that assemble these
bilayers, in particular lipid transport, are not well understood. In this seminar, I will
describe our work in understanding and characterizing lipid trafficking pathways in
Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium smegmatis, and discuss how these systems
function in maintaining lipid homeostasis in the OMs of these organisms.
Selected Publications for Reference
Visit our website @
Shrivastava R, Jiang XE, Chng SS (2017) Bacterial outer membrane homeostasis
via retrograde phospholipid transport. (under review); preprint at bioRxiv doi:
10.1101/109884.
medicine.nus.edu.sg/mbio/
for more upcoming
seminars
Xu ZJ, Poce G, Chng SS (2017) MmpL3 is the flippase for mycolic acids in
mycobacteria. (under revision); preprint at bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/099440.
Thong SH, Ercan B, Torta F, Fong ZY, Wong HYA, Wenk MR, Chng SS (2016)
Defining key roles for auxiliary proteins in an ABC transporter that maintains
bacterial outer membrane lipid asymmetry. eLife 5:e19042.
Chong ZS, Woo WF, Chng SS (2015) Osmoporin OmpC forms a complex with
MlaA to maintain outer membrane lipid asymmetry in Escherichia coli. Mol
Micobiol 98:1133-1146.