Structural biology of transport vesicle and organelle biogenesis
General audience summary: Protein cargo is moved to the correct locations within cells in special transport vehicles or 'vesicles'. The formation of these transport vesicles, and packaging of proteins inside them, is a carefully orchestrated process. We want to understand how cargo is selected for transport, including the general signals that specify transport of many trans-membrane cargo proteins with widely varying function as well as those specifying selection of highly specialised cargo such as SNARE proteins (which ultimately allow the transport vesicles to deliver their general cargoes to the correct destination). We aim to understand how this works through detailed study of protein structure, followed by analysis of how different mutations designed on the basis of these structures, affect their structures and functions in test tube assays and in living cells. Around a third of genes in humans encode either transmembrane protein cargo or the machinery that controls their transport between a cell’s membrane-bound compartments. As membrane traffic goes awry in many pathophysiological states, including both neurological and immune diseases, this area of research has important implications for our understanding of both normal development and disease as well as of basic cellular biology.
Strategic CIMR themes:Membrane Trafficking, Organelle Biology
Funding: Wellcome Trust
Research Group members: Luther Davis (joint with Prof JP Luzio), Sally Gray (joint with Prof JP Luzio), Veronica Kane Dickson (joint with Prof JP Luzio), Jonathan Kaufman, Natalya Leneva, Bernard Kelly, Nathan Zaccai