Research
Central to the life process is the accurate replication of DNA and the faithful segregation of newly replicated DNA sister copies to daughter cells. My D.Phil. project was focused on understanding how chromosome DNA is organized in E. coli and how DNA replication, segregation are linked to cell division.
By developing and exploiting new reagents, I was able to visualize multiple chromosome loci distributed around the genome together with cell division proteins, FtsZ and FtsK, in living cells. My work has shown that the single circular E. coli chromosome is highly organized within the cell, with specific genetic regions occupying specific cellular locations.
My recent work has revealed a remarkable asymmetry in the chromosome segregation process, which dictates how genes are organized in the cell, that is, the left arm (replichore) of the chromosome is positioned on one half of a new-born cell and the right replichore on the opposite half, with the origin region in the middle. My work has also shown that this Left-Right chromosome orientation in a mother cell is recreated as a Left-Right-Left-Right arrangement of sister chromosomes in daughter cells. No one has seen such behaviour before. This finding has brought an absolutely new concept to the organization of the E. coli chromosome.
The ongoing work of my postdoctoral research is to reveal the driving force for chromosome segregation and to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms that lead to this Left-Right organization.