Location
University of Nevada Las Vegas, Science and Education Building
Start Date
9-8-2011 10:15 AM
End Date
9-8-2011 12:00 PM
Description
Stationary phase mutagenesis occurs when a population of cells acquires mutations conferring escape from nongrowing or stress conditions. This type of mutations is observed in nutritionally starved cells. Because the mutations occur after the onset of stress and in cells that are in non-replicative conditions, elucidating the underlying mechanisms contributes novel views to the process of evolution and apply to the formation of cancer in human cells and antibiotic resistance in microbial pathogens. Studies have shown that in Bacillus subtilis, the Mfd protein which is a transcription repair coupling factor is necessary for this phenomenon to occur. Here, we investigate the effect of expression of heterologous Mfd proteins on stationary phase mutagenesis in Escherichia coli and B. subtilis. Mfd from both bacterial sp. was cloned under the transcriptional control of IPTG. Results and their implication on how Mfd mediates the formation of stationary-phase mutations are discussed.
Keywords
Bacillus subtilis; Escherichia coli; Genetic transcription; Mutagenesis; Proteins; Stress (Physiology)
Disciplines
Bacteriology | Biochemistry | Genetics and Genomics | Molecular Biology
Language
English
Included in
Bacteriology Commons, Biochemistry Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons, Molecular Biology Commons
Inactivation of spo0A gene increases stationary phase mutagenesis in Bacillus subtilis
University of Nevada Las Vegas, Science and Education Building
Stationary phase mutagenesis occurs when a population of cells acquires mutations conferring escape from nongrowing or stress conditions. This type of mutations is observed in nutritionally starved cells. Because the mutations occur after the onset of stress and in cells that are in non-replicative conditions, elucidating the underlying mechanisms contributes novel views to the process of evolution and apply to the formation of cancer in human cells and antibiotic resistance in microbial pathogens. Studies have shown that in Bacillus subtilis, the Mfd protein which is a transcription repair coupling factor is necessary for this phenomenon to occur. Here, we investigate the effect of expression of heterologous Mfd proteins on stationary phase mutagenesis in Escherichia coli and B. subtilis. Mfd from both bacterial sp. was cloned under the transcriptional control of IPTG. Results and their implication on how Mfd mediates the formation of stationary-phase mutations are discussed.
Comments
Research sponsored by: NSF grants # DBI 1005223 and #MCB0843606