Goal of the research activities of the Department of Structural Biology is to understand the function and mechanism of action of membrane proteins and membrane protein complexes on the basis of accurately determined three-dimensional structures. Directed towards this goal,we employ molecular biological, biochemical, biophysical, theoretical, and, in particular, crystallographic methods. To date, projects have been focusing on bacterial membrane protein complexes of photosynthesis and bioenergetics. Increasingly, we are working on eukaryotic membrane proteins. Within the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre and the Graduate College Programmes, we are expanding the range of projects to proteins involved in other membrane transport processes and in signaling.
Selected Publications:
- Juhnke, H.D., Hiltscher, H., Nasiri, H. R., Schwalbe, H., Lancaster, C.R.D.: Production, characterization, and determination of the real catalytic properties of the putative 'succinate dehydrogenase' from Wolinella succinogenes. Mol. Microbiol. 71, 1088-1101(2009)
- Lancaster, C. R. D., Hunte, C., Kelley III, J., Trumpower, B.L., Ditchfield, R.: A comparison of stigmatellin conformations, free and bound to the photosynthetic reaction center and the cytochrome bc1 complex. J. Mol. Biol. 368, 197-208.(2007)
- Madej, M.G., Nasiri, H.R., Hilgendorff, N.S., Schwalbe H., and Lancaster, C.R.D.: Evidence for transmembrane proton transfer in a dihaem-containing membrane protein complex. EMBO J. 25, 4963-4970 (2006).
- Mileni, M., Haas, A.H., Mäntele, W., Simon, J., and Lancaster, C.R.D.: Probing heme propionate involvement in transmembrane proton transfer coupled to electron transfer in dihemic quinol:fumarate reductase by 13C-labeling and FTIR difference spectroscopy. Biochemistry 44, 16718 - 16728 (2005).
- Haas, A.H. and Lancaster, C.R.D.: Calculated coupling of transmembrane electron and proton transfer in dihemic quinol:fumarate reductase. Biophys. J. 87, 4298-4315 (2004).
