Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Microbial Biology for FY 2002

Liberati-Moore, Nicole T, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbial Biology for FY2002. The fellowship supports training and research on the basic biology of protozoan, microalgal, fungal, archaeal, bacterial and viral species that are not generally considered to be model organisms. Further, it provides opportunities for a recent doctoral recipients to obtain additional training in microbial biology, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden his/her scientific horizons beyond the research experiences during the undergraduate and graduate training. These fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including foreign locations. The research and training plan is entitled "Pseudomonas aeruginosa Multi-Host Virulence." Using a novel system of invertebrate hosts to rapidly identify Pseudomonas aeruginosa genes that confer virulence, significant overlap in the genes required for pathogenesis in both invertebrate and mammalian hosts has been discovered, suggesting that the mechanisms that direct pathogenesis are common among the many hosts of P. aeruginosa. To dissect the molecular events of pathogenesis the role of the fatty acid biosynthesis gene, fabF, a gene isolated by multi-host screening, is being examined. Novel virulence factors are also being identified using a library of non-redundant mutants with a disruption in every non-essential open reading frame in the P. aeruginosa genome. The defined nature of this library allows exhaustive screening for all genes required for P. aeruginosa pathogenesis. Such analyses will provide a comprehensive view of the universal mechanisms employed by P. aeruginosa to infect its many hosts.