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Pathogenic Microbiology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Pathogenic Microbiology

Phenotypic And Transcriptomic Characterization Of Colonial Phase Variation In The Cholera Pathogen Reveals A Novel Smooth Biofilm-Defective Form, Bliss Nicole Lambert Dec 2018

Phenotypic And Transcriptomic Characterization Of Colonial Phase Variation In The Cholera Pathogen Reveals A Novel Smooth Biofilm-Defective Form, Bliss Nicole Lambert

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Biofilm formation, through the production of Vibrio polysaccharide (VPS), greatly enhances the environmental fitness and pathogenic success of Vibrio cholerae. As a result of phase variation, V. cholerae can switch from a smooth form to rugose, whose cells produce excess VPS, resulting in highly structured biofilms and greater resistance to stress. To further characterize the reversible process of phase variation, we isolated three colonial lineages. Each lineage began with a smooth parent, N16961, and contained a rugose variant derived from the parent, N16961R, as well as a smooth revertant of the rugose, N16961SD. We found clear phenotypic and transcriptomic …


Harnessing The Anopheles Microbiome To Conditionally Express Anti-Plasmodial Effectors During The Blood Meal, Jackie Shane Dec 2018

Harnessing The Anopheles Microbiome To Conditionally Express Anti-Plasmodial Effectors During The Blood Meal, Jackie Shane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The control of vector-borne diseases such as malaria has been an extremely important research subject for hundreds of years. Because of the complex lifecycles of the pathogens that cause these diseases, finding a comprehensive treatment or preventative strategy has proven extremely difficult. Malaria alone is responsible for almost half a million deaths annually, most of them children under 5 years old. This disease is caused by parasitic protists in the genus Plasmodium that are transmitted to humans from Anopheles sp. mosquitoes. Most preventative strategies that are in use today revolve around controlling the vectors, including bed nets, insecticides, and larval …


Functional Similarity Of Prd-Containing Virulence Regulators In Bacillus Anthracis, Malik Raynor May 2018

Functional Similarity Of Prd-Containing Virulence Regulators In Bacillus Anthracis, Malik Raynor

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Bacillus anthracis produces three regulators, AtxA, AcpA, and AcpB, that control virulence gene expression and are members of an emerging class of regulators termed “PCVRs” (Phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase regulation Domain-Containing Virulence Regulators). AtxA controls expression of the toxin genes; lef, cya, and pag, and is the master virulence regulator and archetype PCVR. AcpA and AcpB are less well studied. AcpA and AcpB independently positively control transcription of the capsule biosynthetic operon capBCADE, and culture conditions that enhance AtxA activity result in capBCADE transcription in strains lacking acpA and acpB. RNA-Seq was used to assess the regulons of the …


The Characterization Of The Transcription Factor Msab And Its Role In Staphylococcal Virulence, Justin Batte May 2018

The Characterization Of The Transcription Factor Msab And Its Role In Staphylococcal Virulence, Justin Batte

Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus is a common human pathogen that is responsible for a wide range of infections, ranging from relative minor skin infections to life-threatening disease such as bacteremia, septicemia, and endocarditis. S. aureus possesses many different virulent factors that aid in its ability to cause this wide array of infections. One major virulence factor includes the production of capsular polysaccharide (CP). The production of CP plays a major role in the virulence response during infection specifically by providing S. aureus an antiphagocytic mechanism that allows the pathogen to evade phagocytosis during an infection. S. aureus has developed complex genetic regulatory …