Investigating Orphan Response Regulators in the Opportunistic Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Authors' Affiliations

Katelyn B. Madon and Dr. Chris L. Pritchett, Department of Health Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN

Location

WhiteTop Mountain Room 225

Start Date

4-5-2018 8:00 AM

End Date

4-5-2018 12:00 PM

Poster Number

108

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Chris Pritchett

Faculty Sponsor's Department

Health Sciences

Classification of First Author

Graduate Student-Doctoral

Type

Poster: Competitive

Project's Category

Biomedical and Health Sciences

Abstract or Artist's Statement

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa utilizes a variety of virulence factors to infect a wide range of hosts. Virulence genes in this organism are many times controlled by two-component regulatory systems consisting of a sensor histidine kinase and a response regulator giving them high importance in research. Orphan response regulators consist of genes that have been proposed to be a response regulator but have not been studied to determine if they do work in a two-component regulatory system or not. Investigating these orphan response regulators could potentially lead to the finding of another regulator of virulence genes. Non-polar deletions were designed using splicing of genomic segments by overlapping extension. A variety of phenotypic assays, liquid-killing assays with the nematode C. elegans, and virulence assays with macrophages were utilized to determine if these orphans were different from the wild-type strain PAO1. If attenuated, these genes can be further studied to find new and novel regulators of virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

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Apr 5th, 8:00 AM Apr 5th, 12:00 PM

Investigating Orphan Response Regulators in the Opportunistic Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa

WhiteTop Mountain Room 225

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa utilizes a variety of virulence factors to infect a wide range of hosts. Virulence genes in this organism are many times controlled by two-component regulatory systems consisting of a sensor histidine kinase and a response regulator giving them high importance in research. Orphan response regulators consist of genes that have been proposed to be a response regulator but have not been studied to determine if they do work in a two-component regulatory system or not. Investigating these orphan response regulators could potentially lead to the finding of another regulator of virulence genes. Non-polar deletions were designed using splicing of genomic segments by overlapping extension. A variety of phenotypic assays, liquid-killing assays with the nematode C. elegans, and virulence assays with macrophages were utilized to determine if these orphans were different from the wild-type strain PAO1. If attenuated, these genes can be further studied to find new and novel regulators of virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.