Carbon metabolism in Rhodospirillum rubrum: Study of the mechanism of initiation of genomic duplication and amplification

Description

Our laboratory is studying carbon metabolism in Rhodospirillum rubrum since many years. We have particularly studied photoassimilation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in anaerobic conditions. We recently demonstrated that when Rs. rubrum is cultivated under specific culture condition (in terms of carbon source), this strains is able to duplicate and amplified specific parts of its genome in oder to optimise its growth profile. This phenomenon is already well known in antibiotic and other stress response but poorly studied in response to carbon metabolism constrains. The aim of this project is to study the mechanism of this gene duplication and amplification phenomenon using targeted mutagenesis approaches, population heterogeneity using flow cytometry (single cell analysis) as well as the analysis of carbon metabolism (omics approaches).