NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 1996

该奖学金支持微生物遗传学领域的研究和培训。细菌在有毒金属汞暴露下存活的机制正在使用来自福氏志贺氏菌的质粒的TN21汞抗性操纵子进行研究。这项研究将确定调节蛋白MerR如何与DNA结合，并诱导结构基因merTPCAD的表达，以应对汞暴露。将确定MERR如何区分汞和环境中也遇到的其他重金属。MERR识别镉和锌的突变体将被产生并鉴定。

This fellowship supports research and training in the area of microbial genetics. The mechanism by which a bacterium survives exposure to the toxic metal mercury is being studied using the Tn21 mercury resistance operon from a plasmid of the bacterium Shigella flexeri. The study will determine how a regulatory protein, MerR, binds to DNA and induces expression of a structural gene, merTPCAD, in response to mercury exposure. It will be determined how MerR distinguishes between mercury and other heavy metals also encountered in the environment. Mutants whose MerR recognize cadmium and zinc will be generated and characterized.