Bacterial Adaptation & Response Networks

This handout is designed to introduce and illustrate the research happening within the LSI Research Groups.

The common thread linking all of the group members is investigation of how bacteria adapt and respond to their environments.

We are interested in the essential process of protein transport.

Our current work is aimed at identifying the key residues in the RNA binding and catalytic domains of RNase E, its close relative RNase G, and the exonuclease, polynucleotide phosphorylase, a model for the eukaryotic exosome.

Beyond the limits of our senses exists an infinitely diverse microbial world.

Our ongoing research uses the tools of molecular biology, bioinformatics and evolutionary biology.

Our main research focus is directed to study of a regularly structured surface (S) layer and the biotechnology applications that derive from our understanding of this structure.

Our laboratory's research activities are centered on the general areas of bacterial molecular biology, physiology and genetics, with an emphasis on the regulation of gene expression, and protein structure and function

Many essential biological processes rely on the special catalytic properties of iron and thus this element is a required mineral nutrient for most organisms from bacteria to mammals.

Regulation of bacterial gene expression. The transcriptional regulators we study program antibiotic biosynthesis and resistance as well as differentiated states during colonial morphogenesis in Streptomyces, bacteria that produce the majority of known antibiotics. More recently, we have extended concepts of innate antibiotic resistance and developmental states discovered in Streptomyces to related Mycobacteria, drug resistant pathogens that cause tuberculosis and leprosy.

Research in the Eltis lab seeks to understand microbial enzymes and pathways involved in the degradation of natural and man-made compounds.

My lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis, particularly in the mechanisms which allow colonization and carriage of Bordetella pertussis. B. pertussis is the Gram-negative bacterium that causes whooping cough (pertussis).

In both developed and developing countries, food- and waterborne illnesses are significant health problems.

The Mohn lab studies diverse topics in microbial ecology. We are elucidating bacterial degradation mechanisms for a range of organic compounds, including steroids and some pollutants. We are investigating how bacteria respond to and survive various stresses common to the soil environment, particularly stresses associated with soil drying.