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My scientific project pertains to the understanding of the mechanisms in charge of maintaining genetic information in the model Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The team's main objective is to understand how the function of proteins known to be involved in DNA metabolism may integrate itself in the cell. I have taken a particular interest in studying chromosome repairing and segregation.
In order to better understand these cellular processes, I participated in several studies highlighting new partners involved in DNA metabolism by combining functional studies (publications 1, 4, 6 and 9), researching of physical interactions between proteins (publication 3) and more recently the construction of a global transcriptional map. This latest study required the implementation of transcriptomics techniques, as well as the development, in collaboration with bio-statisticians bioinformatics researchers, of performant tools for analysing hybridization results. These tools allow us to construct new regulation networks and to research their interconnections.
In parallel to these global studies, I interested myself more particularly in the SMC-type proteins, which are key actors for chromosome segregation (publications 2 and 5), but which also seem to play a role in the repair of certain types of lesions of the DNA molecule. A fine-tuned analysis was carried out on these SMC proteins using various approaches (genetics, two-hybrid, biochemical), to better understand the chromosome segregation mechanism in the cell.
Besides the study of purified proteins (S. McGovern), of the dynamics of their protein partners (O. Delumeau) and of the mechanisms involved in segregation processes (C. Benoist), current studies alow us to highlight the relation and coordination, in the cell, between several segregation and reparation processes, particularly the NHEJ (F. lecointe).
These two types of experimental approaches (global and targeted) will allow a better understanding of the global functioning of the model bacterium Bacillus subtilis, as well as the development of models which can be applied to other bacteria.

9. FABRET, C., E. DERVYN, B. DALMAIS, A. GUILLOT, C. MARCK, H. GROSJEAN & P. NOIROT, (2011) Life without the essential bacterial tRNA Ile2-lysidine synthetase TilS: a case of tRNA gene recruitment in Bacillus subtilis. Mol Microbiol 80: 1062-1074.
8. PINCHUK, G. E., D. A. RODIONOV, C. YANG, X. LI, A. L. OSTERMAN, E. DERVYN, O. V. GEYDEBREKHT, S. B. REED, M. F. ROMINE, F. R. COLLART, J. H. SCOTT, J. K. FREDRIKSON & A. S. BELIAEV, (2009) Genomic reconstruction of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 metabolism reveals a previously uncharacterized machinery for lactate utilization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106: 2874-2879.
7. RODIONOV, D. A., X. LI, I. A. RODIONOVA, C. YANG, L. SORCI, E. DERVYN, D. MARTYNOWSKI, H. ZHANG, M. S. GELFAND & A. L. OSTERMAN, (2008) Transcriptional regulation of NAD metabolism in bacteria: genomic reconstruction of NiaR (YrxA) regulon. Nucleic Acids Res 36: 2032-2046.
6. BRANDA, S. S., J. E. GONZALEZ-PASTOR, E. DERVYN, S. D. EHRLICH, R. LOSICK & R. KOLTER, (2004) Genes involved in formation of structured multicellular communities by Bacillus subtilis. J Bacteriol 186: 3970-3979.
5. DERVYN, E., M. F. NOIROT-GROS, P. MERVELET, S. McGOVERN, S. D. EHRLICH, P. POLARD & P. NOIROT, (2004) The bacterial condensin/cohesin-like protein complex acts in DNA repair and regulation of gene expression. Mol Microbiol 51: 1629-1640.
4. KOBAYASHI, K. et al. (2003) Essential Bacillus subtilis genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100: 4678-4683.
3. NOIROT-GROS, M. F., E. DERVYN, L. J. WU, P. MERVELET, J. ERRINGTON, S. D. EHRLICH & P. NOIROT, (2002) An expanded view of bacterial DNA replication. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99: 8342-8347.
2. SOPPA, J., K. KOBAYASHI, M. F. NOIROT-GROS, D. OESTERHELT, S. D. EHRLICH, E. DERVYN, N. OGASAWARA & S. MORYIA, (2002) Discovery of two novel families of proteins that are proposed to interact with prokaryotic SMC proteins, and characterization of the Bacillus subtilis family members ScpA and ScpB. Mol Microbiol 45: 59-71.
1. DERVYN, E., C. SUSKI, R. DANIEL, C. BRUAND, J. CHAPUIS, J. ERRINGTON, L. JANNIERE & S. D. EHRLICH, (2001) Two essential DNA polymerases at the bacterial replication fork. Science 294: 1716-1719.

I followed my university course (DEUG, Degree, Master, DEA) in the faculties of Lille and Orsay. During my PhD, I worked on the illegitimate recombination between short repeated sequences. I obtained my PhD in Cellular and Molecular Genetics on November 1992 at the University of Paris XI, Orsay, France.
After a post-doctoral contract at the Pasteur Institute working on the regulation of the expression of toxin genes in Bacillus thuringiensis, I obtained a 2nd Class researcher job at the Microbial Genetics Laboratory directed by Dr. S.D. Ehrlich at INRA in Jouy en Josas.
In August 1998, I was promoted to 1st Class Researcher in the same laboratory. I defended my HDR in september 2009.