GRK 805:  Protein-Protein Interactions in Signal Transduction

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: from 2002 to 2005
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273499

The research training group teaches medical and science graduate students in the area of protein-protein recognition. This is a ubiquitous reaction with fundamental importance in many biological phenomena. The molecular understanding of protein-protein interactions in several cases involved in signal transduction may lead to the discovery of principles governing this important molecular recognition process.Exogenous and endogenous signals control the behavior of cells by recognition of their particular receptor proteins, the sensory modules of cells which trigger signalling cascades or non-amplified signal transduction by subsequent interactions with different signal transmitting proteins. The final receiving protein may be a regulator of gene expression, an enzyme, or a transporter providing the functional readout. While consensus sequences or motifs have been deduced for many functions of proteins in signalling chains, e.g., DNA binding motifs, substrate binding pockets, or effector binding clefts, principles governing the protein-protein recognition process are still largely unknown. The research training group will contribute to the elucidation of such principles by studying protein-protein recognition under three different aspects.One set of projects studies the involvement of protein-protein recognition in the cell cycle and in cell differentiation, another group of projects concentrates on protein-protein interactions in signal transduction, while the third emphasis is on the mechanistic understanding of domain recognition in proteins and the molecular basis of their specificity and selectivity. The contents range from the analysis of disease related signalling disruption to the genetic and biochemical characterization of protein recognition. A theoretical, structure based approach towards predictions of protein recognition and a bioinformatics based approach to identify the roles of sequence motifs provide the potential to lead to generally applicable principles of protein recognition modules and their roles in cell biology.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hillen (†)
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Cord-Michael Becker; Professor Dr. Timothy Clark; Professor Dr. Helmut Fickenscher; Professor Dr. Joachim Hauber; Professor Dr. Christian Koch; Professor Klaus von der Mark, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Michael Niederweis; Professor Dr. Norbert Sauer; Professor Dr. Thomas Stamminger; Professor Dr. Jörg Stülke; Professor Dr. Friedrich Titgemeyer; Professor Dr. Michael Wegner