Faculty
Anna C. Glasgow Karls, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator
of Microbiology
Ph.D. (1986) University of Wisconsin-Madison
Address: Department of Microbiology
255
Biological Sciences Building
Athens, GA 30602-2605
Phone: (706)
583-0822
E-mail: akarls@uga.edu
COS CV: http://myprofile.cos.com/akarls
PubMed: karls
ac AND glasgow ac
Research Interests:
DNA rearrangements are critical in the regulation
of gene expression in numerous systems, ranging from alternating
expression of flagellin in Salmonella typhimurium to creating
the diversity of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes in
humans. These DNA rearrangements include site-specific DNA inversion,
deletion, insertion/excision, and DNA transposition. Our laboratory
has identified a novel family of DNA recombinases that mediate
both site-specific DNA inversion and IS element transposition
in bacteria. The defining members of this family of DNA recombinases
are Piv, a site-specific DNA invertase, and MooV, a DNA transposase.
Piv mediates site-specific inversion of a chromosomal DNA segment
encoding type 4 pilin of the human eye pathogen, Moraxella
lacunata.
Inversion of the pilin segment controls phase variation of pilin
during the progression of M. lacunata infection of the eye and
subsequent invasion of other tissues. MooV directs IS492 transposition
in the chromosome of the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas
atlantica.
The precise excision and insertion of IS492 at a target site
within an eps gene regulates phase variable synthesis of extracellular
polysaccharide (EPS), which is essential for biofilm formation
by P. atlantica.
The work in my laboratory addresses two aspects of the Piv and
MooV recombination systems:
1) the molecular mechanisms for the
recombination reactions mediated by the site-specific DNA invertase
Piv and the IS492 transposase MooV, and 2) the regulation the
recombination reactions within M. lacunata and P.
atlantica.
