UK Archaea Workshop 2023

In January 2023 Michelle attended the 20th UK Archaea workshop at UCL.

This two day conference was the first in-person archaea workshop since 2020. It was great to catch up with colleagues from the archaeal world, especially my PhD supervisor Thorsten Allers. A range of phylogenetic, biochemical and genetics projects were presented so it was an excellent chance to hear about recent and ongoing research in the field. The stand out talk was the keynote lecture from Christa Schleper (University of Vienna) about the complex cell architecture of an Asgard archaeon.

GenerationResearch summer studentship available

The Hawkins group has a GenRes summer studentship available for 2023. This will fund a student research project for 10 weeks.

Find out more and apply for this studentship

Rep and UvrD are accessory helicases that promote movement of the DNA replication machinery through protein-DNA blocks. Understanding their function gives us important insights into the conflicts between replication and transcription. Escherichia coli that lack either rep or uvrD are viable, but the loss of both genes is lethal. This lethality can be reversed by compensatory suppressor mutations elsewhere in the bacterial genome. We have already generated one such suppressor strain and are looking for a student to identify this new mutation. We have used high throughput sequencing to compile a list of candidate suppressor genes and during this project the student will test each candidate mutation for suppression of the rep/uvrD lethality. The student will learn to work with E. coli, design and carry out PCR, make viral lysates, perform phage transductions, and carry out plasmid loss assays. This project would suit a student interested in microbiology and genetics. Identification of the suppressor mutation will be followed by analysis aiming to characterise the suppressive mechanism. Students will be expected to present their findings orally at a research day in York in September 2023.