Jacobus Barnard
IUUR STEM Summer Research Program
Major: Biology
Mentors: Blake Peterson and Julia van Kessel
Vibrio campbelliiis a gram-negative bacterial pathogen found in aquatic environments, known to infect and cause vibriosis in marine animals (4). Pathogenesis of this bacteria relies on swimming motility via a polar flagella; consequently, the study of Vibrio spp. motility will aid in 1) the treatment of the economic effects of contaminated food stock and 2) the understanding of flagellar regulatory genes. Extensive research has already been done on related species such as V. cholerae, which serves as a basis for understanding flagellar regulatory genes (1). However, more recent evidence has defined the 64 polar flagellar genes and determined a deviation in the V. campbellii flagellar regulatory gene hierarchy (3). In verifying the roles and functions of some of these regulatory genes, our work focused on the flrAand flgBgenes. FlrA is a core flagellar regulator, and as one of the main deviations between V. campbellii and other Vibrio spp., we looked at suppressor mutations via motility assays to analyze important domains. flgB, as a class II gene with a promoter, was put into a plasmid in order to be studied through a fluorescent reporter assay. Comparison of motility plate assays reveal that the suppressor mutations have no affect on motility and thus, they likely do not serve as important domains for flagellar regulation regarding flrA.
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