A common Cytochrome c-centred signalosome for programmed cell death in humans and plants
Il 24/04/2015 ore 14.30 - 15.30
Sala Conferenze CNR; Area della Ricerca Na1, Via P. Castellino, 111 80131 Napoli
Miguel A. De la Rosa's current research interests are in protein-protein interactions and metalloproteins. Using biophysical, molecular and cell biology methods, his projects are aimed at unveiling the cytochrome c-centred biointeractomic scaffold responsible for programmed cell death in plants and humans, as well as at studying the structure-function relations of the complexes formed by the heme-protein with its protein targets. In mammals, the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis, or Programmed Cell Death (PCD), mainly involves activation of the apoptosome-dependent caspase cascade upon binding of cytochrome c to Apaf-1 in the cytoplasm. In plants, however, cytochrome c is likewise released from the mitochondria upon death stimuli, but nothing is known on its cytoplasmic function or targets. Actually, the function of cytochrome c is still controversial as it is mostly immobilized (ca. 90%) in the mitochondrial cristae under homeostatic conditions – and, therefore, it is unable to play any role as redox carrier – but is massively liberated into the cytoplasm and even the nucleus under PCD conditions.
To clarify the extra-mitochondrial role of cytochrome c, his group has recently performed two independent proteomic analyses in human and plant cells. The resulting data reveals that cytochrome c can interact with an ample set of pro-survival and anti-apoptotic proteins in both the nucleus and cytoplasm of the two organisms. When comparing the human and plant targets of cytochrome c, they can realize that some of them are functionally related, thus suggesting a common cytochrome c-centred signalosome in plants and humans.
Miguel A. De la Rosa is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (University of Seville, Spain) and Director of the Scientific Research Centre Isla de la Cartuja (cicCartuja), a joint institution of the University of Seville , the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Andalusian Government. He is the founder and director of the Laboratory of Structural and Functional Proteomics at the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (Seville, Spain).
He received his Ph.D. in biological sciences in 1981 from the Seville University, and was a postdoctoral scholar in King’s College London.
Miguel A. De la Rosa is the chair of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), and has been chair of the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM) (2008-12) and president of the Bioelectrochemical Society (2003-07). He is editor of FEBS Letters, FEBS OpenBio and IUBMB Life; associate editor of Bioelectrochemistry, and editor-in-chief of SEBBM. He is member of the jury of Premio Rey Jaime I, and has received prestigious distinctions, including: FEBS National Lecture (Portugal 2010), Alberto Sols Lecture (Argentina 2010), António V. Xavier Lecture (Portugal 2010), Severo Ochoa Lecture (Chile 2001), First Javier Benjumea Prize (2003), Seville Academy of Sciences award (1992). He was the chair of the 22nd IUBMB and 37th FEBS Congress held in Seville in 2012.
References
Martinez-Fabregas J et al. Molecular and Cellullar Proteomics 2014; 13: 1439–1456
Martinez-Fabregas J et al. Molecular and Cellullar Proteomics 2013; 13: 3666-3676
Martínez-Fábregas J et al. Cell Death and Disease (NPG) (2014) 5, e1314
Organizzato da:
Ibp-Cnr
Referente organizzativo:
Daniela Corda
CNR - Istituto di biochimica delle proteine
d.corda@ibp.cnr.it
081/6132536
Modalità di accesso: ingresso libero