Award details

The intricacy of bacterial epigenetics: DNA methylation-dependent phase variation and the cell cycle in E. coli

Reference	BB/C502849/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Marjan van der Woude
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of York
Department	Biology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	252,230
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	21/02/2005
End date	20/04/2008
Duration	38 months

Abstract

The project will explore the relationship between the bacterial cell cycle and the regulation of phase variation of the outer membrane protein Ag43 in Escherichia coli. The heritable nature of the expression phase is a direct result of inheritance of the DNA methylation state at agn43, and the regulation is by definition epigenetic. The processes that facilitate this inheritance during the various stages of the cell cycle are unclear. The specific objectives of this proposal are: 1) Identify the relative roles of OxyR, Dam and SeqA for inheritance of the methylated state of agn43 DNA. 2) Determine the role of DNA replication for agn43 epigenetic regulation. The approaches that will be used include quantitative analyses of protein-DNA interactions in vitro and in vivo analysis of agn43 phase variation in various mutant isolates. Ag43 expression contributes to the development of bacterial communities, and thus elucidating how its expression is controlled over many generations will also increase our understanding of the formation of phenotypic distinct bacterial populations.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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