Grace Neiswanger

Major: Microbiology

Faculty Advisor: Scott Grieshaber

Project Title:

Is the Plasmid Protein PGP4 Involved in the Production Rate of EB’s?

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the most common sexually transmitted bacterial infections affecting humans today. C. trachomatis progresses through a biphasic developmental cycle consisting of two cell forms, the infectious elementary body (EB) and the metabolically active, replicative reticulate body (RB). Once the EB has entered a host cell, it converts into an RB. The RB begins replicating and eventually converts into more EBs for subsequent rounds of infection. PGP4 is a plasmid encoded master transcriptional regulator of chlamydial virulence-associated gene expression that has been speculated to alter RB to EB production. To monitor the impact of PGP4 on EB production, we synthesized a plasmid in which pgp4 expression is regulated by theophylline via a riboswitch. With this riboswitch, we are able to modulate different levels of expression and at what time we want to express PGP4.