Intercellular Signaling in Vibrio Harveyi

哈维氏弧菌的细胞间信号转导

• 批准号: 0639855
• 负责人: Bonnie Bassler
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-01 至 2011-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0639855&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Intercellular; Signaling; Vibrio; Harveyi

Intellectual Merit: The overall goal of the PI's research is to understand quorum sensing, i.e., the process of cell-cell communication in bacteria. Quorum sensing involves the production, release, and subsequent detection of chemical signal molecules called autoinducers. This process enables populations of bacteria to regulate gene expression, and therefore behavior on a population-wide scale. The ability to produce and simultaneously detect multiple autoinducers and to transduce that information into the precise control of gene expression was first discovered, and is best studied, in Vibrio harveyi which uses three distinct autoinducers for intra-species, intra-genera, and inter-species cell-cell communication. Thus, the V. harveyi quorum-sensing circuit has revealed itself to be ideally suited for explorations of questions concerning how sensory information is integrated at the molecular level and how regulatory proteins controlled by multiple cues can nonetheless provide a mechanism for differential responses to those inputs. For a full understanding of how multiple signals are integrated to control gene expression, it is necessary to know and characterize all of the inputs, how these inputs are relayed into the cell, how sensory information is integrated, and, finally, a detailed knowledge of what the target outputs are and the molecular mechanisms underlying their precise control is required. The research to be carried out under this award focuses on V. harveyi, with the aim of exploring how information from the intra-species, intra-genera and inter-species signals is integrated, processed, and transduced to control community-wide behavior. Importantly, the past decade has shown that cell-cell communication is the norm in the bacterial world and thus understanding this process is fundamental to all of microbiology, including agricultural, industrial and clinical microbiology, and ultimately to understanding the development of higher organisms. Broader Impacts: Dr. Bassler participates in many teaching and service related activities. At Princeton, she teaches an undergraduate lecture and laboratory class for non-majors (MOL101: From DNA to Human Complexity) and she teaches the graduate course MOL545: Advanced Microbial Genetics. She is the Director of Graduate Studies for Molecular Biology, the Chair of the Graduate Committee, the Chair of the Biology Umbrella Development Program, and the Chair of the Committee for Scientific Direction, Curriculum Development, and Faculty Recruitment for Molecular Biology. She is on the University Diversity Committee responsible for recruiting women faculty in science and minority faculty in all disciplines. She is an undergraduate advisor at one of the Princeton residential colleges. She developed and supervises a high school outreach program for teaching science to children and teens in NJ public libraries. She is on the advisory board of Science Museum, which develops science exhibits for NY museums. She is an editor for Molecular Microbiology and Annual Reviews of Genetics, and on the editorial board of Journal of Bacteriology. She serves on NSF, Keck, Damon Runyon, Burroughs Wellcome, ASM, and AAM grant, fellowship, meeting, and award review panels. Finally and most importantly, she is actively involved in mentoring in her laboratory. She currently has 5 graduate students, 4 postdocs, 2 undergraduates, and 2 technicians. Over the past 12 years she has mentored a total of 6 postdocs, 13 graduate students, and 19 undergraduates. This award will support two graduate students per year in her laboratory.

智力优势：PI研究的总体目标是了解群体感应，即，细菌中细胞与细胞通讯的过程。群体感应包括产生、释放和随后检测称为自诱导物的化学信号分子。这一过程使细菌群体能够调节基因表达，从而在群体范围内调节行为。产生并同时检测多个自诱导物并将该信息转化为基因表达的精确控制的能力首先在哈氏弧菌中被发现，并且在哈氏弧菌中被最好地研究，哈氏弧菌使用三种不同的自诱导物用于种内、属内和种间细胞间通信。因此，哈维氏弧菌群体感应回路非常适合探索感觉信息如何在分子水平上整合，以及受多种线索控制的调节蛋白如何提供对这些输入的差异反应机制。为了全面了解多个信号是如何整合来控制基因表达的，有必要了解和描述所有的输入，这些输入是如何传递到细胞中的，感觉信息是如何整合的，最后，需要详细了解目标输出是什么以及精确控制它们的分子机制。该奖项下进行的研究重点是哈维氏弧菌，目的是探索来自种内、属内和种间信号的信息如何被整合、处理和转导，以控制整个群落的行为。重要的是，过去的十年已经表明，细胞间的交流是细菌世界的常态，因此理解这一过程对于所有微生物学，包括农业，工业和临床微生物学，以及最终理解高等生物的发展至关重要。更广泛的影响：Bassler博士参加了许多教学和服务相关的活动。在普林斯顿大学，她教本科讲座和实验室类的非专业（MOL101：从DNA到人类的复杂性），她教研究生课程MOL545：先进的微生物遗传学。她是分子生物学研究生课程主任，研究生委员会主席，生物学伞发展计划主席，以及科学方向，课程开发和分子生物学教师招聘委员会主席。她是大学多样性委员会负责招聘女教师在科学和少数民族教师在所有学科。她是普林斯顿一所住宿学院的本科生导师。她开发并监督了一个高中外展计划，在新泽西州公共图书馆向儿童和青少年教授科学。她是科学博物馆的顾问委员会成员，该博物馆为纽约博物馆开发科学展品。她是《分子微生物学》和《遗传学年度评论》的编辑，也是《细菌学杂志》的编委。她在NSF，Keck，Damon Runyon，Burroughs Wellcome，ASM和AAM赠款，奖学金，会议和奖项评审小组任职。最后也是最重要的是，她积极参与实验室的指导工作。她目前有5名研究生，4名博士后，2名本科生和2名技术人员。在过去的12年里，她指导了6个博士后，13个研究生，19个本科生。 该奖项将支持她的实验室每年两名研究生。