Overview

The Elías-Arnanz Myxo group studies how bacteria sense and respond to light. Our model organism for these studies is the Gram-negative soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, and our findings have led us to investigate related systems in other bacteria such as the also Gram-negative Thermus thermophilus and Caulobacter crescentus, and the Gram-positive Bacillus megaterium. Moreover, our work has uncovered proteins that are conserved in multicellular animals from worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) to human, leading us to explore the functions of these proteins in model animal systems and human cell lines. Finally, the links between the light  response and other processes in M. xanthus have steered us to studying global regulation, multicellular development, lipid metabolism and CRISPR-Cas systems in this model bacterium.

We use a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses genetic, genomic, biochemical, biophysical, and high-resolution structural analyses of the players involved in the light response and other processes we study. Of particular emphasis are novel families of global regulators, transcription factors and photoreceptors; ether lipid biosynthesis; and regulation of CRISPR-Cas systems. 

Milestones

  • Discovery of the large RNA polymerase-binding CarD-CdnL family of global regulators in bacteria, and their modes of action.

  • Discovery and molecular mechanism of action of adenosylcobalamin-dependent photoreceptors, a novel, and again, large family of vitamin B12-based photoreceptors.

  • Discovery of the desaturase essential for vinyl ether lipid or plasmalogen biosynthesis in bacteria as well as in animals from worms to human, and the signaling role of plasmalogens in a photooxidative response.

  • Basis for the discovery of one of earliest alternative sigma factors of the extracytoplasmic function (ECF) family.

  • Identification of a novel, multifactorial control of the expression of a CRISPR-Cas system.


For more details on the research in the Elías-Arnanz Myxo group please click here



Research Funding

We thank the Spanish Ministries for Education, Science and Research, and Fundación Séneca (Murcia, Spain) for continual support of our research efforts over the last three decades.

 

Research Grants (from 2010)

 

  • Title: Defense strategies of the bacterium Myxoccocus xanthus against photooxidative stress and its connections to other cellular stresses.

Project: 21939/PI/22 (Fundación Séneca, Murcia,Spain). From 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2025
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz

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  • Title: Novel membrane signaling and gene regulatory mechanisms in extracytoplasmic stress responses of Myxococcus xanthus: Functional and evolutionary aspects.

Project: PID2021-123336NB-C21 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación -Spain). From 01/09/2022 to 31/08/2025
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz

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  • Title: Stress signaling at the cell envelope and associated gene regulatory mechanisms in Myxococcus xanthus: Functional and evolutionary aspects. 

Project: PGC2018-094635-B-C21 (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades-Spain). From 01/09/2019 to 31/08/2022
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz

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  • Title: Two pathways for the response to light in Myxoccocus xanthus: analysis of the molecular mode of action specific and global transcriptional factors and signal transducers.

Project: 20992/PI/18 (Fundación Séneca, Murcia,Spain). From 01/04/2019 to 31/03/2022
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz

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  • Title: New molecular aspects of the photoregulatory network in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus and its evolutionary conservation: functional and global analysis.

Project: BFU2015-67968-C2-1-P (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad-Spain). From 01/01/2016 to 30/06/2019
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz

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  • Title: Evolutionary conservation of the mode of action of the regulatory proteins CarF, CarA/CarH and CdnL in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus.

Project: 19429/PI/14 (Fundación Séneca, Murcia,Spain). From 01/07/2015 to 30/06/2018
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz

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  • Title: The light response regulatory network and connections to other regulatory networks in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus: functional and global analysis.

Project: BFU2012-40184-C02-01 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad-Spain). From 01/01/2013 to 31/12/2015
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz

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  • Title: Bacterial chromosome segregation and organization: model Myxococcus xanthus.

Project: BFU2011-25542 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Spain). From 01/01/2012 to 31/12/2014
Principal Investigator: Antonio Angel Iniesta Martínez

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  • Title: Regulatory networks in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus: functional analysis.

Project: BFU2009-12445-C02-01 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Spain). From 01/01/2010 to 31/12/2012
Principal Investigator: Montserrat Elías Arnanz