Regulation of a Plasmid Gene in Bacillus Subtilis
{'Code': '08070100', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'BIO', 'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'MCB', 'LongName': 'Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Philip Harriman', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
Chloramphenicol (Cm) inhibits bacterial growth by blocking                      peptide elongation during translation on 70S ribosomes.  Cm                     also acts as an inducer of the expression of cat genes                          (encoding chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) in Gram-positive                   bacteria. Induction of one gene, cat-86, has been shown to be                   due to activation of mRNA translation.  This appears to result                  from the ability of Cm to stall ribosomes translating a cat-86                  regulatory leader peptide; a stalled ribosome is thought to                     disrupt a downstream RNA stem-loop that sequesters the cat-86                   ribosome binding site.  The long term goal of this proposal is                  to explain the mechanism which allows Cm to activate cat-86,                    and other inducible cat genes.  It is anticipated that these                    studies will clarify and extend our understanding of the                        mechanism of action of a ribosomally targeted antibiotic.  It                   is also expected that these studies will show the breath of                     the principles of the attenuation regulatory model in                           controlling gene expression.  By use of site directed                           mutagenesis and recombinant DNA technology it is now possible                   to determine whether the proposed Cm stall site is an mRNA or                   protein sequence, and the sequence of the site.  The spatial                    relationship between the stall site and the regulated RNA                       secondary structure will be identified.  Uncommon examples of                   apparently Cm-insensitive translation exit in bacteria.  Do                     these result from the fortuitous absence of a Cm stall site?                                                                                                    Certain species of the soil bacterium genus Bacillus are                        naturally resistant to the antibiotic chloramphenicol by                        virtue of their ability to synthesize an enzyme which                           inactivates the drug.  The synthesis of the inactivating enzyme                 is specifically inducible by the drug, i.e., the bacteria make                  the enzyme only when they encounter the drug.  Dr. Lovett's                     earlier studies have shown that a drug-induced change in the                    behavior of ribosomes, the organelles which synthesize                          proteins, is a critical part of the mechanism of the induction                  of the inactivating enzyme.  This is a very unusual mechanism                   for the regulation of gene expression, and Dr. Lovett proposes                  in this study to work out many of the still obscure details of                  this mechanism.  Apart from insight into a novel regulatory                     mechanism, this work should also yield new insight into how the                 function of ribosomes is controlled.
{'FirstName': 'Paul', 'LastName': 'Lovett', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'S', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Paul S Lovett', 'EmailAddress': '301455-2249', 'NSF_ID': '000220670', 'StartDate': '09/01/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of Maryland Baltimore County', 'CityName': 'BALTIMORE', 'ZipCode': '212500001', 'PhoneNumber': '4104553140', 'StreetAddress': '1000 HILLTOP CIR', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Maryland', 'StateCode': 'MD', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '07', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'MD07', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'RNKYWXURFRL5', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': 'KMGEN62NKEM9'}
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{'Code': '1112', 'Text': 'Genetic Mechanisms'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8802124.xml'}