ESF Research Conferences

ESF-EMBO Symposium

Molecular Bioenergetics of Cyanobacteria: From Cell to Community

10-15 April 2011

Final Programme

Sunday 10 April

17:00 onwards: Registration at the ESF desk

19:00: Welcome Drink

19:45: Dinner

Monday 11 April

8:30-8:45: Opening of the conference

Session 1: “Stress” and metabolism in the lab and the environment

8:45-9:15: Martin Hagemann (DE, Rostock Univ)
The photorespiratory enzyme glycolate oxidase is part of the oxygen-scavenging strategy of N2-fixing cyanobacteria to protect nitrogenase

9:20-09:50: Amel Latifi (FR, Aix-Marseille Univ/CNRS)
How does Anabaena PCC7120 cope with oxidative stress?

9:55-10:25: Frédéric Partensky (FR, CNRS)
Response of marine cyanobacteria to ultraviolet stress

10:30-11:00: Coffee break

SHORT TALKS 
11:00-11:20: David Knaff (Texas Tech Univ, US)
The mechanism of a glutaredoxin-dependent cyanobacterial arsenate reductase

11:20-11:40: Aaron Kaplan (Hebrew Univ, Israel)
Enslavement in the water body: the biological role of toxins

11:40-12:00: Francisco Florencio (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain)
Functional genomic of the rsponse to arsenic by the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp PCC 6803

12:30-14:30: Lunch


Session 2: Cyanobacteria as multicellular organisms

14:30-15:00: Antonia Herrero (ES, IBVF-Seville)
Transcriptional regulation and metabolic adaptations during heterocyst differentiation

15:05-:15:35: Karl Forchhammer (DE, Univ Tübingen)
AmiC2, a novel morphogen for the development of multicellularity in a filamentous cyanobacterium

15:40-16:10: James Golden (USA, Univ California-SD)
SigE is required for expression of heterocyst-specific genes in Anabaena PCC 7120

16:15-16:45: Coffee Break

16:45-17:15: Robert Haselkorn (USA, Chicago Univ)
The X-ray Structure of HetR - A master regulator of heterocyst différentiation

SHORT TALKS
17:20-17:40: Vicente Mariscal Romero (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain)
Intercellular communication in the heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120: functional dissection of the SepJ protein

17:40-18:00: Alicia Maria Muro-Pastor (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain)
Transcriptomic analysis of the switch to heterocyst differentiation in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. Identification of non-coding RNAs

18:00-18:20: Theresa Thiel (University of Missouri-St Louis, USA)
Regulation of nitrogenase genes for increased hydrogen production by Anabaena variabilis

18:20-18:40: Karin Stensjö (Uppsala University, Sweden)
Metabolic adaptations in an uptake hydrogenase mutant of Nostoc punctiforme –targets for improved nitrogenase based H2 generation

19:45: Dinner

Tuesday 12 April

Session 3: The circadian clock and cell biology

8:30-9:00: Susan Golden (USA, Univ California-SD)
How cyanobacteria tell time

9:05-9:35: Annegret Wilde (DE, Univ Giessen)
Hfq and c-di-GMP in Phototaxis

9:40-10:10: Franck Chauvat (FR, CEA-Saclay)
The cyanobacterial divisome

10:15-10:45: Group Photo & Coffee Break

SHORT TALKS
10:45-11:05: Luning Liu (Queen Mary, University of London, UK)
The localisation of respiratory Complex I in cyanobacteria


11:05-11:25: Enrico Schleiff (JWGU Frankfurt, DE)
Outer membrane biogenesis of cyanobacteria – unexpected evolutionary implications

11:25-11:45: S. Andreas Angermayr (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Metabolic engineering of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803: Modification of its (central) carbon metabolism to allow synthesis of fermentation end products

11:50-12:05: Taina Tyystjärvi (University of Turku, Finland)
The roles of group 2 sigma factors in light acclimation of Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 

12:30-14:30: Lunch

14:30-16:00: Poster Session 1-I

16.00-16.30: Coffee Break

16.30-17.40: Poster Session 1-II

17:45-19:45: Round table discussion 1:
Watching cyanobacteria in their environment: new techniques in cell biology from lab to the fields
Chairs: Conrad Mullineaux and Elke Dittmann

19:45: Dinner

Wednesday 13 April

Session 4: How relevant is laboratory-based photosynthesis research to the real world

8:30-9:00: Diana Kirilovsky (FR, CEA-Saclay)
The OCP-related photoprotective mechanism : new insights and in vitro reconstitution

9:05-9:35: Imre Vass (HU, Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
Characterization of electron transfer pathways in cyanobacteria by flash induced chlorophyll fluorescence measurement

9:40-10:10: Eva-Mari Aro (FI, Univ Turku)
Flavodiiron proteins in bioenergetics of cyanobacteria

10:15-10:45: Coffee Break

SHORT TALKS
10:45-11:05: Pengpeng Zhang (FI, Univ Turku)
Operon flv4-flv2 provides cyanobacteria with a novel photoprotection mechanism

11:05-11:25: Govindjee (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Mixotrophically-grown Photosystem I deletion mutants of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 are capable of light-induced net oxygen production in the presence of glucose

11:25-11:45: Nir Keren (The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, Israel)
Transition metal bio-availability and the function of the photosynthetic apparatus

12:30-14:30: Lunch


14:30: Poster Session 2-I

16.00-16.30: Coffee Break

16.30-17.30: Poster Session 2-II

19:45: Dinner

Thursday 14 April

Session 5: Adaptation to environments

8:30-9:00: Birgitta Bergman (SE, Stockolm Univ)
Genome-based View of a Vertically Inherited Symbiotic Cyanobacterium

9:05-9:35: Lucas Stal (NL, Univ Amsterdam)
Nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial mats: from cell to community

9:40-10:10: Claudia Steglich (DE, Univ Freiburg)
The Challenge of Regulation in a Minimal Photoautotroph: Non-Coding RNAs in Prochlorococcus

10:15-10:45: Coffee Break

SHORT TALKS
10:45-11:05: Wolfgang Hess (University of Freiburg, DE)
Chlorophyll d-containing cyanobacteria: Evidence for niche adaptation in the genus Acaryochloris

11:05-11:25: Lars Behrendt (Copenhagen University, DK)
Phototrophic communities associated with the tropical ascidian Lissoclinum patella: A Chlorophyll-d case study

11:25-11:45: Jens Appel (Arizona State Univ, USA & Christian-Albrechts-Universität, DE)
Fermentative hydrogen production in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

12:05-12:20: Jean-François Humbert (INRA-ENS, Paris, FR)
Genetic and genomic diversity in the toxic freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa: What explains the ecological success of this bloom-forming species?

12:30-14:30: Lunch

Session 6: System biology and integrated approaches

14:30-15:00: Cong-Zhao Zhou (CN, China Univ Sci Tech)
How does 2-OG activate NtcA?

15:05-15:35: Hans Matthijs (NL, Univ Amsterdam)
Nitrogen availability affects metabolism and microcystin variant synthesis

SHORT TALKS
15:40-15:55: Allan Konopka (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
Genome-scale network reconstruction of Cyanothece 51142 and prediction of metabolic fluxes under light- and N-limited conditions

16:00-16:30: Coffee Break

16:30-17:45: Pramod Wangikar (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)
A global analysis of adaptive evolution of operons in Cyanobacteria

17:50-17:05: Patrick Shih (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Evolutionary Implications of an Improved Phylogenetic Sampling of the Cyanobacterial Phylum

17:10-17:25: Jose Luis Llacer (IBV-CSIC, Valencia, Spain)
Structural bases of PII-signaling through NtcA

17:30-18:45: Asunción Contreas (Universidad de Alicante, Spain)
Mutational analysis of PipX: effect of point mutations on NtcA activation and toxicity in the absence of PII

18:50-19:50: Round Table discussion 2
Forward-looking discussion
Discussion leaders: Cheng-Cai Zhang and Eva-Mari Aro

20:00: Before Dinner Drink

20.30: Conference Dinner

Friday 15 April

Breakfast and Departure

 

Information

All Invited Speaker presentations will last 30 mins.

All presentations of Short Talks will last 15 mins.

A period of 5 mins is allocated for discussion after each talk.