Dynamique des membranes transductrices d'énergie : biogénèse et organisation supramoléculaire.

The LabEX DYNAMO brings together seven research units in Paris working at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, the École Normale Supérieure and the Collège de France on the biogenesis and function of energy-transducing membranes. Since its inception, the DYNAMO project has advanced our understanding of the mechanisms involved in the biogenesis of energy-transducing membranes, through important breakthroughs in translational control, RNA maturation/degradation processes, and evolutionary links from the bacterium to the organelle. For the year 2024, I would like to highlight three major publications. In task 1, which investigates the evolution of energy-producing organelles by studying gene expression in bacteria, chloroplasts, and mitochondria, we used a new technique called 30S-Seq to identify dozens of non-canonical ribosome binding sites, including stand-by ribosome binding sites and riboswitches, in E. coli (Jagodnik, BioRXiv). This has major consequences for our thinking of how translation is initiated in bacteria and organelles, in particular on mRNAs lacking canonical Shine-Dalgarno sequences. In Task 2 which aims to understand membrane dynamics across evolution and decipher methods to investigate membrane proteins, we discovered a previously unknown constricted mitochondrial morphology that optimizes respiration in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiea (Singh et al. Nat Com). This work has profound implications to link the form of energy-transducing systems to their function. In Task 3, we showed how exogenous quinones extract photosynthetic electrons from microalgae, with their redox potential and hydrophobicity dictating photocurrent efficiency and revealed how the redox state of ThyX controls its catalytic mechanism by restructuring the active site.

In 2025, DYNAMO further strengthened its scientific impact by organizing a 2.5-day international symposium, gathering 365 participants and fostering interdisciplinary exchanges.