Our lab investigates the mechanisms by which bacteria control their own growth and reproduction. In particular, we want to understand how bacteria dynamically adjust their growth rate and mode of proliferation in response to fluctuating external conditions, for example changes in nutrient availability or at the onset of environmental stress, to ensure their survival. To this end, we study the regulatory circuits governing bacterial cell cycle progression and how these circuits cross-talk with stress response pathways to allow the integration of environmental information into the cell cycle. For our studies, we use a multi-disciplinary approach combining classical genetics, cell biology and biochemistry with modern live-cell imaging and high-throughput techniques. As our primary model organism we utilize the fresh water bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, which divides asymmetrically and has well-defined cell cycle phases. In addition, we do some of our work in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica to study how the C. crescentus cell cycle circuit relates to the one of other bacteria, and to investigate how precise regulation of cell cycle progression contributes to bacterial persistence and pathogenesis.
Our lab is located at the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab), a national center for molecular biosciences with focus on health and environmental research.
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Keywords
Cell cycle, bacteria, DNA replication, regulation, adaptation, gene-environment interactions, stress responses, Caulobacter crescentus
Selected publications
Omnus DJ*, Fink MJ*, Szwedo K, Jonas K (2021). The Lon protease temporally restricts polar cell differentiation events during the Caulobacter cell cycle. eLife. 10e:73875
Felletti M, Romilly C, Wagner EGH, Jonas K (2021). A nascent polypeptide sequence modulates DnaA translation elongation in response to nutrient availability. eLife. 10e: 71611
Schramm FD, Schroeder K, Jonas K (2020). Protein aggregation in bacteria. FEMS Microbiology Reviews. 44: 54-72
Heinrich K*, Leslie DJ*, Morlock M, Bertilsson S, Jonas K (2019). Molecular basis and ecological relevance of Caulobacter cell filamentation in freshwater habitats. mBio. 10: e01557-19‚
Schramm FD, Heinrich K, Thüring M, Bernhardt J, Jonas K (2017). An essential regulatory function of the DnaK chaperone dictates the decision between proliferation and maintenance in Caulobacter crescentus. PLOS Genetics. 13:e1007148
Jonas K, Liu J, Chien P, Laub MT (2013) Proteotoxic stress induces a cell cycle arrest by stimulating Lon to degrade the replication initiator DnaA. Cell. 154: 623-636
