The Molecular Cell Biology Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) awarded Professor Kazimierz Bassalik Prizes and Recognitions for the best microbiology related research conducted in Polish laboratories and published in 2019. The main prize was awarded to the research team headed by dr hab. Iwona Mruk, prof. UG form the Faculty of Biology of the University of Gdańsk.

PAN awarded the research team from the Faculty of Biology UG for the article titled ‘Transcriptome analyses of cells carrying the Type II Csp231I restriction-modification system reveal cross-talk between two unrelated transcription factors: C protein and the Rac prophage repressor’, published in the prestigious Nucleic Acids Research journal (IF=11,2). The article’s authors are: dr Alessandro Negri, mgr Aleksandra Szczuka, dr Marcin Jąkalski and dr Leszek Pryszcz.

As the Faculty of Biology UG website reads, the work illustrates, based on the operon model of restriction modification system with regulator gene, that some bacterial genetic modules encounter serious limitations in free DNA spreading among prokaryotic organisms with the use of horizontal transfer of genes. The researched example reveals that during the transfer of DNA, the transcription regulator gene disrupts the existing genetic dependency networks in the recipient cell, leading to a drastic decrease in cell life. The molecular mechanism of this process has been described.

You can read the whole article here

Details on PAN’s website.

Translation: Adam Myzyk