Prokaryotic gene regulation by light and oxygen

感知环境线索对于细菌在不同环境条件下生存至关重要。这 MERIT扩展应用程序建议继续分析信号转导组件， 细菌感知氧张力和光强度的变化。一个低温氧气和光线调节 我们研究的代谢途径是合成四吡咯的重要末端的生物合成途径 产品血红素，维生素312和叶绿素。我们正在积极研究氧气和光如何响应信号 转导成分控制这些四吡咯的合成， 细胞协调合成。 我们的实验室研究了几种氧和光反应受体，这些受体存在于各种各样的细胞中。 细菌包括几种重要的病原体，它们涉及控制毒力。这项建议 使用遗传学、生物化学和结构生物学方法的组合， 理解用于感知氧张力和光变化的潜在分子机制 强度。我们还研究了这些信息是如何传递给调节四吡咯的转录因子的 基因表达对氧气和光线的反应。在过去的资助期间，Pi的实验室成功地 过渡到结构生物学领域，发表了几种光的晶体结构， 我们所研究的转录因子。这些结构化方法提供了第一个详细的 了解蓝光吸收如何驱动细菌基因表达的改变。我们正在采取 类似的方法可以获得如何感测氧张力变化的详细分子理解 以及这些信息是如何用来改变细胞生理的。 相关性（参见说明）： 这项研究提供了细菌如何感知氧张力和光强度变化的分子细节 这可能影响许多细菌物种的行为、存活和致病性。

Sensing environmental cues is critical for bacteria to survive under different environmental conditions. This MERIT extension application proposes continued analyses ofsignal transduction components that are used by bacteria to sense alterations of oxygen tension and light intensity. One crytical oxygen and light regulated metaboUc pathway that we study is the tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathway that synthesizes important end products heme, vitamin 312 and chlorophyll. We are actively studying how oxygen and light responding signal transduction components control synthesis ofthese tetrapyrroles with a long-term goal ofunderstanding how cells coordinate their synthesis. Our laboratory studies several oxygen and light responding receptors that are present in a wide variety of bacteria including several important pathogens where they are Implicated in controlling virulence. This proposal uses a combination of genetics, biochemistry and structural biology methodologies to obtain detailed understandings of underlying molecular mechanisms used to sense changes in oxygen tension and light intensity. We also study how this information is transmitted to transcription factors that regulate tetrapyrrole gene expression in response to oxygen and light. During the past funding period, the Pi's laboratory successfully transitioned Into the field of structural biology resulting in published crystal structures ofseveral light responding transcription factors that we study. These structural approaches are providing the first detailed understanding of how blue Ught absorption drives alteration in gene expression in bacteria. We are taking similar approaches to obtain a detailed molecular understanding of how a change in oxygen tension is sensed and how this information is used to alter cellular physiology. RELEVANCE (See instructions): This study provides molecular details of how bacteria sense changes in oxygen tension and light intensity that can affect the behaviour, survival and pathogenicity of a broad number of bacterial species.