Seminar Series- Dr. Pemberton

• In-person event

Title: Establishing a molecular toolbox to investigate how local phospholipid composition directly contributes to the coordinate control of membrane dynamics and inter-organelle communication.

Abstract: The ability of cells to maintain specialized membrane compartments with distinct protein and lipid compositions directly facilitates the spatial organization of metabolic homeostasis. Dynamic remodeling of cellular membranes relies on molecular mechanisms that specifically exploit the unique physiochemical properties of individual lipid species, which also function in concert with integral and peripheral proteins, to define membrane characteristics such as fluidity, thickness, and surface charge. Studies of subcellular membrane composition have classically relied on biomolecular separation techniques such as thin-layer chromatography, as well as, more recently, the establishment of comprehensive lipidomics methodologies. However, these approaches lack spatial information related to how lipid species are distributed or transferred between the distinct membrane compartments that exist within an intact cell. As a result, in order to better understand how cells establish as well as respond to dynamic changes in membrane composition, we have explored the use of engineered eukaryotic and bacterial protein scaffolds for use as molecular tools that can be used to map subcellular phospholipid distributions in real-time. Our results using these novel approaches reveal important details related to how the acute regulation of local membrane composition contributes to organelle dynamics and influences downstream changes in cellular metabolism.