Tristan Wagner: Enlightening the metabolic secrets of anaerobic microbial key players of the carbon cycle (Séminaire Externe MAP - Equipe M2E)

Dr Tristan Wagner de l'IBS de Grenoble, invité par l'Equipe M2E

Abstract: Microorganisms have been shaping the Earth's biogeochemistry for almost four billion years. Among them, anaerobic archaea governing the carbon cycle nourish ecosystems and orchestrate the final step of organic matter degradation. These peculiar microbes, already employed as biological factories by our modern society, harbour a universe of concealed enzymatic chemistry capable of activating inert molecules such as CO2 and N2 to turn them into biofuels CH4 and NH3. To decipher the reaction mechanisms of these (metallo)enzymes, our laboratory relies on an unbiased approach by directly purifying the proteins from the anaerobic microorganism. The enzymes isolated in their native states (i.e., loaded with their appropriate (metallo)cofactor(s), partners, and post-translational modifications) are characterized by a crystallography, biochemistry, and biophysics suite. The gained insights into the reaction mechanisms open new avenues for biotechnological application and unravel the regulation and efficiency of the microbial metabolic network by understanding their subtle molecular adaptation. This presentation will highlight recent breakthroughs of our approach and will provide a glimpse of our future project based on developing the field of environmental biochemistry. The latter aims to isolate enzymes from the microbial dark matter directly from environmental biomass to snapshot the catabolism as closely as possible from natural conditions.

Tristan Wagner vient d'être recruté Chercheur au CEA à l'Institut de Biologie Structurale de Grenoble, dans le groupe de Bruno Franzetti. Par le passé il a été Leader du groupe "Microbial Metabolism group" au Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology de Brême. Il est également lauréat d'une ERC Consolidator dédiée à l'étude des métabolismes capables d'utiliser les molécules mono-carbonées comme source d'énergie et de carbone dans des milieux dépourvus en oxygène.