General area:
We study regulatory mechanisms by which microbes sense changes in the environment and respond by modifying their behavior and metabolism. Of greatest interest are the global regulatory systems that coordinate expression of numerous genes throughout the bacterial genome. Our studies of the Csr system revealed a novel kind of global regulatory system, based on an mRNA binding protein, CsrA, and noncoding regulatory RNAs that sequester and antagonize CsrA. We are studying molecular mechanisms, regulatory circuits, and roles of Csr in bacterial virulence, biofilm formation, motility, metabolism, and quorum sensing.
