Rüdiger Schmitt (geneticist)

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Rudiger Schmitt

Rüdiger Schmitt (born May 25, 1936 in Münster ) is a German geneticist and molecular biologist . He is a professor emeritus at the University of Regensburg . Schmitt's research concerns questions of transferable antibiotic resistance in enterobacteria , the directed movement ( chemotaxis ) of symbiotic soil bacteria ( Rhizobiaceae ) and cell differentiation in the green alga Volvox carteri.

Life

Schmitt studied chemistry, physics and physiology at the TU Berlin and the TU Braunschweig from 1955 to 1961 . He received his doctorate in organic chemistry at the Technical University of Braunschweig in 1963 under Hans Herloff Inhoffen . From 1964 to 1966 he was a postdoctoral fellow in Stanford, California, USA at the Syntex Institute for Molecular Biology under the mentorship of Joshua Lederberg and Carl Djerassi . In 1966 he went to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland USA for two years as a research fellow . In 1969 he completed his habilitation at the University of Erlangen . Until 1974 he worked there at the Institute for Microbiology as a private lecturer in molecular genetics.

From 1974 to 2004 Schmitt was full professor for genetics at the University of Regensburg. As Vice Rector, he has entered into international partnerships with Washington University (St. Louis, USA), Charles University (Prague), Kanazawa University (Japan) and Lomonosov University (Moscow). Schmitt was visiting scholar at the Universities of Geneva, Edinburgh, Bristol, Washington University (St. Louis) and Harvard University. As a UNESCO Invited Lecturer, he lectured at the Institute of Nutritional Resources in Beijing, China, in 1987. From 1982 to 2004 he was a liaison professor at the German National Academic Foundation . He was Associate Editor of the Journal of Bacteriology (1982-1989). Schmitt is a grandson of Anton Rheinländer .

research results

The medical use of effective antibiotics is noticeably restricted by the rapid spread of resistance. The cause is resistance genes, which are exchanged very effectively between bacteria by means of small extra chromosomes ( plasmids ) and jumping genes ( transposons ). The transposon Tn1721, which occurs worldwide in coli bacteria, transmits a tetracycline resistance determinant TetR, which reacts to increasing amounts of the antibiotic with increased resistance. Schmitt was able to attribute this adaptation to the recombinant amplification of the TetR genes. Molecular details of the Tn1721-mediated distribution of the TetR gene cluster have been elucidated.

Symbiotic soil bacteria (Rhizobiaceae) swim, attracted by root exudates, by means of rotating flagella in a search movement to the host plant (chemotaxis) and infect the fine root hairs. Schmitt showed that rhizobia swim with special 'complex' flagella that have been adapted to the soil environment. These rotate exclusively clockwise (unlike the well-studied E. coli paradigm). The swimming direction is determined by varying the speed of rotation of individual flagella (like caterpillar vehicles by using a chain). The motor at the base of the rotating flagella is a unique nanomachine, whose propulsion by a proton gradient is still puzzling to researchers. In his model of the rotating flagellated motor, Schmitt formulated a coherent concept for the unsolved conversion of proton motor force into torque.

Together with David L. Kirk (St. Louis), Schmitt investigated the genetic program for cell differentiation in the green spherical alga Volvox carteri, one of the simplest models for the 'division of labor' between mortal somatic cells and immortal germ cells. Using specially adapted techniques of transposon mutagenesis and transformation, they characterized a central regulatory gene (reg A) that throttles photosynthesis in somatic cells and thus programs their aging and death. Programmed cell aging and cell death were thus - for the first time in a green organism - attributed to a genetic blockade of photosynthesis. In view of the rapid advances in genetic and biomedical research, Schmitt has been involved in sociopolitical questions about the responsibility of the natural scientist since the mid-1980s.

Membership in international scientific associations

  • American Society of Bacteriology (ASM)
  • Genetics Society of America (GSA)
  • Society of General Microbiology (SGM)
  • Society of German Chemists (GDCh)
  • Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM)
  • Society for Genetics (GfG)
  • Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM)
  • Association of Biology, Biosciences and Biomedicine in Germany (VBIO)
  • Robert Koch Foundation e. V.

honors and awards

  • 1959–1963 scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation
  • 1999 Luigi Pravasoli Award from the Phycological Society of America

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ R. Schmitt curriculum vitae
  2. ↑ R. Schmitt. Bacterial antibiotic resistance and its spread through plasmids and “jumping genes”. Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau 35: 139-147 (1982).
  3. ^ R. Schmitt, E. Bernhardt & R. Mattes. Characterization of Tn1721, a new transposon containing tetracycline resistance genes capable of amplification. Molecular and General Genetics 172: 53-65 (1979).
  4. ^ R. Schmitt, J. Altenbuchner, K. Wiebauer, W. Arnold, A. Pühler & F. Schöffl. Basis of transposition and gene amplification by Tn1721 and related tetracycline resistance transposons. In: Movable Genetic Elements. Cold Spring Harbor Symposium of Quantitative Biology 45: 59-63 (1981)
  5. ↑ K. Wiebauer, S. Schraml, SW Shales & R. Schmitt. Tetracycline resistance transposon Tn1721: recA-dependent gene amplification and expression of tetracycline resistance. Journal of Bacteriology 147: 851-859 (1981).
  6. ^ P. Rogowsky, SE Halford & R. Schmitt. Definition of three resolvase binding sites at the res loci of Tn21 and Tn1721. EMBO Journal 4: 2135-2141 (1985).
  7. ^ R. Götz, N. Limmer, K. Ober & R. Schmitt. Motility and chemotaxis in two strains of Rhizobium with complex flagella. Journal of General Microbiology 128: 789-798 (1982).
  8. ^ R. Götz & R. Schmitt. Rhizobium meliloti swims by unidirectional intermittent rotation of right-handed flagellar helices. Journal of Bacteriology 169: 3146-3150 (1987).
  9. ↑ U. Attmannspacher, B. Scharf & R. Schmitt Control of speed modulation (chemokinesis) in the unidirectional rotary motor of Sinorhizobium meliloti. Molecular Microbiology 56: 708-718 (2005).
  10. ↑ R. Schmitt. Sinorhizobial chemotaxis: A departure from the enterobacterial paradigm. Microbiology 148: 627-631 (2002).
  11. ↑ R. Schmitt. Helix rotation model of the flagellar rotary motor. Biophysical Journal 85: 843-852 (2003)
  12. ↑ R. Schmitt. Differentiation of germinal and somatic cells in Volvox carteri. Current Opinion in Microbiology 6: 608-613 (2003).
  13. ↑ M. Miller, R. Schmitt & DL Kirk. Jordan, an active Volvox transposable element similar to higher plants. The Plant Cell 15: 1125-1138 (1993)
  14. ↑ B. Schiedlmeier, R. Schmitt, W. Müller, MM Kirk, H. Gruber, W. Mages & DL Kirk. Nuclear transformation of Volvox carteri. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 91: 5080-5084 (1994)
  15. ↑ MM Kirk, K. Stark, SM Miller, W. Müller, BE Taillon, H. Gruber, R. Schmitt & DL Kirk. regA, a Volvox gene that plays a central role in germ-soma differentiation, encodes a novel regulatory protein. Development 126: 639-647 (1999).
  16. ↑ K. Stark, DL Kirk & R. Schmitt. Two enhancers and one silencer of regA control germ-soma differentiation in Volvox carteri. Genes and Development 15: 1449-1460 (2001).
  17. ↑ M. Meißner, K. Stark, B. Cresnar, DL Kirk & R. Schmitt. Volvox germ-line genes that are putative targets of RegA repression encode chloroplast proteins. Current Genetics 36: 363-370 (1999).
  18. ↑ K. Stark & ​​R. Schmitt. Genetic Control of Germ-Soma Differentiation in Volvox carteri. Protist 153: 99-107 (2002).
  19. ^ Rüdiger Schmitt, Helmut Altner & Dietrich Burkhardt (eds.). Science without borders? - Humanities and natural scientists face the question of responsibility. MZ-Verlag, Regensburg (1991).
  20. ↑ R. Schmitt. Research with human stem cells. The stem cell debate in Germany. In: Belief and Thought. Yearbook of the Karl-Heim-Gesellschaft (Martin Rothgangel & Ulrich Beuttler, eds.). Publishing house Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 23rd year: 147–162 (2010).
  21. ^ Phycological Society of America: Recipients
personal data
SURNAME Schmitt, Rudiger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geneticist and molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster