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Slideshow

Summers

Research Interests:

We have long studied bacterial plasmid-encoded resistance to inorganic

and organic mercury compounds (the mer locus) as a model for (a) gene

regulation by toxic metals, (b) microbial detoxification of

environmental hazards, and (c) the influence of toxic metals on the

commensal microbiota of vertebrates. Our present work on mer focuses on

structure-function and dynamic studies of the two major types of MerR

protein and on the unique interactions of the classical Tn21 MerR

regulator with RNA polymerase during repression and activation and with

MerD during shut-down of mer operon expression. In this work we

collaborate with the groups of Jeremy Smith and Liyuan Liang at the Oak

Ridge National Laboratory.

We also have a growing interest in the molecular basis of mercury

intoxication. With collaborators Sue Miller at UCSF and Mary Lipton at

the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory we have devised a

computational filter based on the seven stable isotopes of Hg to

identify, at the individual peptide scale using LC-MS/MS proteomics,

those proteins most vulnerable to forming adducts with

organo-mercurials. We are now beginning a new project to similarly

define the inorganic mercury "exposome" and to use this approach in

collaboration with Judy Wall at Missouri for high-throughput discovery

of proteins involved in mercury methylation by sulfate reducing bacteria.

We have also worked in the area of lateral gene transfer in prokaryotes

with special emphasis on the dissemination by plasmids and transposons

of genes for resistance to toxic metals and antibiotics. We are now

wrapping up two major sequencing projects on large, mobile plasmids of

meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and of several genera

of marine bacteria, agricultural pathogens, and bacteria important in

biofuel fermentation.

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