Safa Boussouar

Safa Boussouar, 30 years old, is a second-year doctoral student in Microbiology. After earning a Master’s degree in Microbiology and Quality Control from the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB) in Algiers, she obtained a second Master’s degree in Integrative and Fundamental Microbiology from Aix-Marseille University. During her Master’s studies, she developed an interest in the mechanisms by which bacteria adapt to their environment, and in particular the role of molecular chaperones in this adaptation. In this context, she is working on J-domain proteins (JDPs), co-chaperones of DnaK/Hsp70, within the “Bacterial Adaptation Systems” team, under the supervision of Dr. Sébastien Dementin, at the Bioenergetics and Protein Engineering (BIP) laboratory in Marseille. Her doctoral project aims to characterize a novel mechanism for regulating gene expression involving the DnaK chaperone. This mechanism relies on a protein system crucial for the cold adaptation of the aquatic bacterium Shewanella oneidensis, hence its name “Atc” for “Adaptation to cold.” It comprises four proteins: AtcJ, a JDP that recruits DnaK, and three other proteins (AtcA, AtcB, and AtcC) with unknown functions. Since essential interactions between DnaK, the Atc proteins, and RNA polymerase have been demonstrated, this project aims to decipher the mechanism that coordinates the chaperone function of DnaK and transcription via the Atc proteins.