Location
University of Nevada Las Vegas, Student Union Ball Room
Start Date
6-8-2009 9:30 AM
End Date
6-8-2009 12:00 PM
Description
Here, we examine mutagenic programs that are independent of growth, such aspects of the evolutionary process are novel and have been implicated in the formation of cancers in animal cells and the acquisition of antibiotic resistance in animal pathogens. Adaptive or stationary phase mutagenesis is a genetic program to in increase diversity in cells under conditions of stress whereby cells escape non-dividing conditions. Previous research has shown that recombination functions are required to generate mutations that promote growth in Escherichia coli cells starved for carbon. This project tests the hypothesis that recombination functions are required for the generation of mutations that promote growth in response to amino acid starvation stresses in Bacillus subtilis cells. In B. subtilis cells, recN, in addition to recA, mediates recombination events and may influence the formation of adaptive mutations. A RecN- strain will be generated by standard molecular techniques and compared to a RecN+ strain for its ability to accumulate mutations that affect amino acid biosynthesis. We speculate that recN does not affect stationary phase mutagenesis in B. subtilis and discussed other novel mechanisms mediating the generation of mutations in non-dividing cells.
Keywords
Adaptative mutagenesis; Bacillus subtilis; Gene mutations; Non-dividing cells; Stationary mutagenesis; Stress mutations
Disciplines
Bacteriology | Genetics
Language
English
The Role of recN in stationary phase mutagenesis in bacillus subtilis
University of Nevada Las Vegas, Student Union Ball Room
Here, we examine mutagenic programs that are independent of growth, such aspects of the evolutionary process are novel and have been implicated in the formation of cancers in animal cells and the acquisition of antibiotic resistance in animal pathogens. Adaptive or stationary phase mutagenesis is a genetic program to in increase diversity in cells under conditions of stress whereby cells escape non-dividing conditions. Previous research has shown that recombination functions are required to generate mutations that promote growth in Escherichia coli cells starved for carbon. This project tests the hypothesis that recombination functions are required for the generation of mutations that promote growth in response to amino acid starvation stresses in Bacillus subtilis cells. In B. subtilis cells, recN, in addition to recA, mediates recombination events and may influence the formation of adaptive mutations. A RecN- strain will be generated by standard molecular techniques and compared to a RecN+ strain for its ability to accumulate mutations that affect amino acid biosynthesis. We speculate that recN does not affect stationary phase mutagenesis in B. subtilis and discussed other novel mechanisms mediating the generation of mutations in non-dividing cells.