Bacteria occupy almost every niche on earth, from our bodies to the soil to the seafloor. To adapt to these environments, they must sense and respond to chemical cues using sensory systems. One of the most widespread sensory systems is the PAS domain, which is found in all kingdoms of life. PAS domains have been found to sense light, nutrients, and oxygen. However, for the vast majority of PAS domains, we do not know the chemical cues that activate them. This proposed work seeks to discover some of the chemical cues that affect the behavior of environmental and plant-associated bacteria.
Proposer: Ming Hammond, University of Utah
Proposal: High-throughput Functional Discovery of Bacterial Sensory-Enzymes