Keren Nevo-Dinur

Publications (3)52.23 Total impact

• Article: Compartmentalization And Spatio-Temporal Organization Of Macromolecules In Bacteria.

  Sutharsan Govindarajan, Keren Nevo-Dinur, Orna Amster-Choder
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  ABSTRACT: For many years the bacterial cells were regarded as tiny vessels lacking internal organization. This view, which stemmed from the scarcity of membrane-bounded organelles, has changed considerably in recent years, mainly due to advancements in imaging capabilities. Consequently, despite the rareness of conventional organelles, bacteria are now known to have an intricate internal organization, which is vital for many cellular processes. The list of bacterial macromolecules reported to have distinct localization patterns is rapidly growing. Moreover, time-lapse imaging revealed the spatio-temporal dynamics of various bacterial macromolecules. Although the regulatory mechanisms that underlie macromolecules localization in bacterial cells are largely unknown, certain strategies elucidated thus far include the establishment of cell polarity, the employment of cytoskeletal proteins, and the use of the membrane properties, i.e., curvature, electric potential and composition, as localization signals. The most surprising mechanism discovered thus far is targeting of certain mRNAs to the subcellular domains where their protein products are required. This mechanism relies on localization features in the mRNA itself and does not depend on translation. Localization of other mRNAs near their genetic loci suggests that the bacterial chromosome is involved in organizing gene expression. Taken together, the deep-rooted separation between cells with nucleus and without is currently changing, highlighting bacteria as suitable models for studying universal mechanisms underlying cell architecture. © 2012 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
  FEMS microbiology reviews 07/2012; · 10.96 Impact Factor
• Article: Subcellular localization of RNA and proteins in prokaryotes.

  Keren Nevo-Dinur, Sutharsan Govindarajan, Orna Amster-Choder
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  ABSTRACT: The field of bacterial cell biology has been revolutionized in the last decade by improvements in imaging capabilities which have revealed that bacterial cells, previously thought to be non-compartmentalized, possess an intricate higher-order organization. Many bacterial proteins localize to specific subcellular domains and regulate the spatial deployment of other proteins, DNA and lipids. Recently, the surprising discovery was made that bacterial RNA molecules are also specifically localized. However, the mechanisms that underlie bacterial cell architecture are just starting to be unraveled. The limited number of distribution patterns observed thus far for bacterial proteins and RNAs, and the similarity between the patterns exhibited by these macromolecules, suggest that the processes that underlie their localization are inextricably linked. We discuss these spatial arrangements and the insights that they provide on processes, such as localized translation, protein complex formation, and crosstalk between bacterial machineries.
  Trends in Genetics 04/2012; 28(7):314-22. · 10.06 Impact Factor
• Article: Translation-independent localization of mRNA in E. coli.

  Keren Nevo-Dinur, Anat Nussbaum-Shochat, Sigal Ben-Yehuda, Orna Amster-Choder
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  ABSTRACT: Understanding the organization of a bacterial cell requires the elucidation of the mechanisms by which proteins localize to particular subcellular sites. Thus far, such mechanisms have been suggested to rely on embedded features of the localized proteins. Here, we report that certain messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in Escherichia coli are targeted to the future destination of their encoded proteins, cytoplasm, poles, or inner membrane in a translation-independent manner. Cis-acting sequences within the transmembrane-coding sequence of the membrane proteins are necessary and sufficient for mRNA targeting to the membrane. In contrast to the view that transcription and translation are coupled in bacteria, our results show that, subsequent to their synthesis, certain mRNAs are capable of migrating to particular domains in the cell where their future protein products are required.
  Science 02/2011; 331(6020):1081-4. · 31.20 Impact Factor