New grant awarded

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Together with our collaborators from Microbial Bioengineering Laboratory@Masaryk University, we have been successful in the recent OPUS28+LAP competition by National Science Center Poland, with project PUSH: Unlocking the unused capacity of bacterial metabolism through the rational design of substrate transporters, beating the still unfortunate 13 % success rates (hoping for better chances for all next time).

We will have openings for a Post-Doc and a doctoral student soon.

New publication in Plant Physiology

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Biała-Leonhard W, Bigos A, Brezovsky J, Jasiński M, 2025: Message hidden in α-helices – towards a better understanding of plant ABCG transporters’ multispecificity. Plant Physiology 198: kiaf146. full text

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are ubiquitous in all organisms and constitute one of the largest protein families. The substantial expansion of this family in plants coincided with the emergence of fundamental novelties that facilitated successful adaptation to a sessile lifestyle on land. It also resulted in selectivity and multispecificity toward endogenous molecules observed for certain ABC transporters. Understanding the molecular determinants behind this intriguing feature remains an ongoing challenge for the functional characterization of these proteins. This review synthesizes current achievements and methodologies that enhance our mechanistic understanding of how ABCG transporters, which are particularly numerous in land plants, specifically recognize and transport endogenous compounds. We examine in silico modeling and the recent advancements in the structural biology of ABCGs. Furthermore, we highlight internal and external factors that potentially influence the substrate selectivity of those proteins. Ultimately, this review contributes to rationalizing our current capacity to fully understand how plants orchestrate membrane transport fulfilled by these proteins.