Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-05-29

Molecular prospecting for novel bioactivities and understanding cellular proteolysis: Studies on proteases and unfoldases from hyperthermophilic Archaea

Objective

TET proteases, found recently in Archaea, are extremophilic enzymes that form large hollow molecular edifices (12 to 24 subunits) and process large substrates. However their function and activities remain poorly explored. Therefore, the project aims to characterise the enzymatic activity and the structure of these complexes with two objectives: I) specify their role into the cell, and II) explore their possible biotechnological use.

The efforts of the project will be focused first in the enzymatic characterisation (conditions for activity, substrate specificity) of four recombinant TET-like proteases from the hyperthermophilic archaeal genus Pyrococcus. Then, a complete study about the structure of these enzymes will be carry out by using analytical ultra centrifugation, electron cryo-microscopy, crystallography and neutron scattering. These investigations will lead to understand the enzymatic mechanisms of the TET proteases and the molecular basis of their substrate specificity. Moreover, since the study is centred on enzymes that are stable and active at temperatures around 100°C, the results obtained could give place to new biotechnological applications. The second part of the project will focus on the cellular role of these proteases.

Because of their complex quaternary structures and their co-purification with molecular chaperone complexes, the TET proteases could participate into the controlled elimination of proteins into the cytoplasm as partners of the 20S proteasome and/or by interacting with protein unfoldase complexes such as PAN. In order to specify this, protease assays will be performed in the presence of recombinant PAN complexes and/or purified 20S proteasome. Since the study of the archaeal systems can be a resource for solving the more intricate problems that are found within the eukaryotic biology, and since these cellular proteolytic processes remain bad understood, the outcomes of the PROTARC project will be of high physiological value.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP6-2002-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European Fellowships

Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
EU contribution
No data
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
My booklet 0 0