Guest Seminar by Dr. Kausik Si, Scientific Director, Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Event Date and Time : 12 Oct 2026, 11:00 AM

Speaker : Dr. Kausik Si

Venue : Gargi

Description

Talk Title :  "Out of one, many: Protein pleomorphism and context-specific function"

Talk Abstract:

Proteins are responsible for most cellular functions and protein conformation dictates function. Since proteins often adopt one conformation, protein-coding gene number is thought to largely determine the number of protein functions. However, number of protein-coding genes does not accommodate the enormous diversity nor the functional repertoire of biological systems. How does then a seemingly limited proteome accommodate this vast functional space? We have developed an experimental approach combining mass spectrometry and computational modelling to probe for protein form and function in native biological context. We find that same polypeptides can adopt distinct tissue-specific or context-specific fold to perform tissue-or context-specific function. We call this phenomenon protein pleomorphism. We find pleomorphic proteins participate in temperature adaptation in yeast, tissue-identity in fly, and functional diversity of mammalian brain. We postulate biology deploy inherent plasticity of protein conformation to expand the functional repertoire of proteome.

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