Description:

Title: Vibrio cholerae Responses to Antimicrobial Peptide Exposure

Speaker: Jyl Matson, PhD, University of Toledo

Host: Karla Satchell, PhD

Topic:

Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of epidemic cholera, encounters a variety of stressful conditions in the human gastrointestinal tract and in the aquatic environment. One of the many stresses that the bacteria encounter in the host is exposure to antimicrobial peptides on mucosal surfaces. Our ongoing studies aim to characterize newly identified proteins and pathways that contribute to bacterial survival in the presence of antimicrobial peptide stress. Related to this work, we have also identified antimicrobial peptides as an inducer of virulence gene expression in V. cholerae. Therefore, we also aim to elucidate the exact mechanism by which this signal is sensed and used to modulate gene expression.