Peter Graumann

Research Area

We are studying dynamic processes in bacteria, with a focus on chromosome dynamics and cell shape maintenance. We are interested in several questions that involve the spatial organization and biochemistry of the cell: how is the shape of a bacterium established? How is the cell cycle regulated and driven, and how is DNA transferred between bacteria? As a model for Gram positive bacteria, we use Bacillus subtilis cells, which offer a superb genetic and cell biological system. We are using a combination of state of the art biochemical tools and super resolution fluorescence microscopy to understand how the bacterial cell is organized in 3D, and how cyctosolic and membrane proteins are dynamically positioned within a non-compartmentalized cell.

Expertise

synthetic microbiology
microbial genetics
bacterial cell biology
Single molecule tracking
super resolution fluorescence microscopy
cell cycle
biofilms
genome organization
DNA repair

Selected Publications

1. Dersch, S. and Graumann P.L. (2018) The ultimate picture-the combination of live cell superresolution microscopy and single molecule tracking yields highest spatio-temporal resolution. Curr. Opp. Microbiol. 43: 55-61

2. Hernandez-Tamayo, R., Oviedo Bocanegra, L., Fritz, G. and Graumann, P.L. (2019) Symmetric activity of DNA polymerases at and recruitment of exonuclease ExoR and of PolA to the Bacillus subtilis replication forks. Nucleic Acids Res. 47:8521-8536

3. Sonja Schibany, Luise A. K. Kleine Borgmann, Thomas C. Rösch, Tobias Knust Maximilian H. Ulbrich, Peter L. Graumann (2018) Single molecule tracking reveals that the bacterial SMC complex moves slowly relative to the diffusion of the chromosome. Nucleic Acids Res. 46: 7805-7819