Molecular characterization of the circadian clock in Bacillus subtilis

• Applicant: Professorin Martha Merrow, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Metabolism, Biochemistry and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 507872050

Circadian clocks are pervasive in nature. They regulate the expression of genes and proteins - and thus functions - to certain times of day. They are present in animals, plants fungi and photosynthetic bacteria. Despite this, they have resisted description in the non-photosynthetic bacteria. This proposal aims to follow up on our 2021 publication describing extensive circadian clock properties in a prokaryote of this class, Bacillus subtilis. We propose to discover the molecular mechanism of this circadian clock using 1. a systems approach (transcriptomics, proteomics and phosphoproteomics coupled with modeling), 2. a candidate gene approach (using bioinformatically predicted candidates for clock genes as well as candidates predicted from our bioinformatics results; and using kinase inhibitors and enhancers to concentrate on phosphorylation as a mechanism) and 3. validation of our developing models (using reverse genetics). Our research program will rapidly provide a roadmap for others to describe circadian clocks in other prokaryotic model organisms with applications ranging from biotechnology to medicine.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants