Analysis and characterization of the choline-utilizing microcompartment in uropathogenic E. coli 536

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2019-01-01
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Herring, Taylor
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Thomas Bobik
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Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology

The Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology was founded to give students an understanding of life principles through the understanding of chemical and physical principles. Among these principles are frontiers of biotechnology such as metabolic networking, the structure of hormones and proteins, genomics, and the like.

History
The Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics was founded in 1959, and was administered by the College of Sciences and Humanities (later, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences). In 1979 it became co-administered by the Department of Agriculture (later, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences). In 1998 its name changed to the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology.

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1959–present

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  • Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics (1959–1998)

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Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Abstract

Bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) are subcellular organelles that are widespread among bacteria. MCPs consist of metabolic enzymes encapsulated within a protein shell and their function is to increase the efficiency of metabolic processes in part by sequestering toxic and volatile intermediates. MCPs are found in about 20% of bacteria. In several cases, MCP production is correlated to bacterial pathogenesis. In addition, because of their metabolic role in the human gut microbiome, MCPs are linked to cancer and heart disease. Only three of ten MCP types have been well-studied. Recently, a new type of MCP that is used to metabolize choline under anaerobic conditions and is linked to cardiovascular disease was discovered in Proteus and Desulfovibrio. The genes for the choline-utilizing (cut) MCP were also found in pathogenicity island II of uropathogenic Escherichia coli 536 through bioinformatics analyses. The main focus of this thesis is to describe biochemical and genetic studies carried out to increase our understanding of the E. coli 536 cut MCP. Our results show that E. coli 536 does indeed produce cut MCPs and that the cut genes are found in two adjacent operons containing three and thirteen genes, respectively. The main 13-gene cut operon contains genes responsible for anaerobic choline degradation and MCP formation, and the smaller cut operon contains three regulatory proteins that control transcription of the main cut operon. In addition, our studies show that the global regulatory systems, ArcAB, Fnr, and CRP (which are encoded outside the cut locus) all positively regulate transcription of the main cut operon. Overall, the findings reported here provide insights into the function and regulation of the cut MCP of E. coli 536. This further expands our understanding of bacterial MCPs and provides new knowledge that might be applied to their future use in nanotechnology and biomedicine.

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Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 UTC 2019