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SUMMARY:Bacterial Physiology During Growth Arrest: Can It Be Targeted by A
 nti-Bacterial Therapeutics? - Dr Megan Bergkessel - University of Dundee
DTSTART:20260423T140000Z
DTEND:20260423T150000Z
UID:TALK246094@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:90994
DESCRIPTION:Historically\, the study of bacterial physiology and regulatio
 n has focused on populations of cells growing exponentially\, in part beca
 use the cellular system can be assumed to be at steady state (to a first a
 pproximation) under these conditions. In exponential growth\, bacterial ge
 ne expression is controlled predominantly at the level of transcription in
 itiation and is regulated to optimise growth rate given the available nutr
 ients. However\, in many environmental contexts\, including infections\, b
 acterial populations are not in exponential\, steady state growth and inst
 ead are subjected to growth-arresting nutrient depletion or stress. Much l
 ess is known about regulatory capacities and mechanisms under these condit
 ions. We have focused on measuring biosynthetic activities and regulatory 
 mechanisms in Pseudomonas aeruginosa starved for carbon or nitrogen sour
 ces. We find that viability\, new protein synthesis\, and flagellar motili
 ty are maintained over many days of total starvation\, and we have begun t
 o characterise the regulatory networks controlling these activities. A maj
 or motivation for investigating growth arrest activities and regulation is
  the growing understanding that the growth-arrested bacteria commonly foun
 d in chronic infection contexts are tolerant of the most commonly used ant
 ibiotics. I will finish by describing our efforts to leverage our investig
 ations into growth arrest to identify novel targets for anti-bacterial the
 rapeutics.
LOCATION:Jean Thomas Lecture theatre\, Sanger Building\, Tennis Court Road
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