Surbhi Sharma

Surbhi Sharma holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Botany with a specialization in Plant Ecophysiology. After gaining industry experience in intellectual property (patents) at CSIR-URDIP and CSIR-TKDL in India, she returned to academia to pursue a Ph.D. in 2023. Under the supervision of Vendula Krynická in Josef Komenda’s group, she is investigating the role of FtsH membrane proteases in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Cyanobacteria encode four FtsH homologs that form heteromeric (FtsH1/3 and FtsH2/3) and homomeric (FtsH4) complexes. The exact functions and substrate specifities of these complexes are still largely unknown. Surbhi is investigating the different functions of all FtsH homologs, with an emphasis on their contribution to cell viability and cellular homeostasis. She focuses on identifying the substrates of FtsH. To this end, she uses a trapping method in Synechocystis mutant in which the proteolytic domain of FtsH is inactivated by a point mutation. Her recent results indicate a possible role of FtsH4 in the regulation of the carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM) through the degradation of the bicarbonate transport regulator called SbtB. She is also investigating the role of the FtsH3 homolog in the regulation of chlorophyll synthesis by identifying enzymes involved in tetrapyrrole synthesis as possible substrates for FtsH3. In addition, Surbhi is working on the characterization of newly constructed chimeric FtsH strains in which different domains of FtsH1 are expressed under the ftsH2 locus.The preliminary studies indicate that the transmembrane domain of the protease is crucial for the subcellular localization and function of FtsH1 and FtsH2 in Synechocystis. Her research has also contributed to the elucidating of how the FtsH proteases control the accumulation of protein factors involved in the biogenesis of photosystem I (Konik et. al 2023).