Biology

Dr. Julien Derr
University of Paris, Diederot (Mini-symposium on Physicochemical phenomena and how they shape biological processes - Talk II)

When dividing, the bacteria Escherichia coli needs to give exactly half of the genetic material to each daughter cell. This requires accurate positioning of the division machinery, exactly in the middle of the cell. This task is achieved thanks to a set of interacting proteins: the Min proteins. Two main players are the MinD protein that binds to the membrane, and the MinE protein, which enhances the unbinding of the MinD bound form.  

In this talk, we will briefly review the history and generalities about the Min system before focusing on a key aspect which has been forgotten by most models: the polymeric aspect of the MinD filaments binding the membrane.

We'll see how we can understand MinE behaviour in this polymeric framework before showing that a polymeric model can reproduce experimental results.