About BGP

The Bacterial Genetics and Pathogenesis Group (BGP) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School is an interdisciplinary group of faculty interested in basic biological processes such as DNA repair, recombination and transcription in Escherichia coli K-12 as well as the molecular basis of microbial pathogenesis. The pathogenic bacteria under investigation include enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) and enteropathogenic (EPEC) Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis, Haemophilus influenzae , Listeria monocytogenes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Borrelia species causing Lyme disease and Relapsing Fever.

Faculty

Brian J. Akerley PhD
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Phone: (508) 856-1442
E-mail:brian.akerley@umassmed.edu
Biology and Pathogenicity of Haemophilus influenzae

Victor Boyartchuk PhD
Program in Gene Function and Expression
Phone: (508) 856-4353
E-mail: victor.boyartchuk@umassmed.edu
Genetics of host susceptibility to Listeria monocytogenes infection

Jon D. Goguen PhD
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Phone: (508) 856-2490
E-mail: jon.goguen@umassmed.edu
Function and regulation of virulence genes in the plague bacillus, Yersinia pestis

John M. Leong MD PhD
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Phone: (508) 856-4059
E-mail: john.leong@umassmed.edu
Interactions of bacterial pathogens with mammalian cells

Martin G. Marinus PhD
Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Phone: (508) 856-3330
E-mail: martin.marinus@umassmed.edu
DNA mismatch repair and mutagenesis mechanisms

Kenan C. Murphy PhD
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Phone: (508) 856-6042
E-mail: kenan.murphy@umassmed.edu
Structure-function studies on host and phage recombination proteins

Anthony R. Poteete PhD
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Phone: (508) 856-3708
E-mail: anthony.poteete@umassmed.edu
Homologous genetic recombination and protein structure

Christopher M. Sassetti PhD
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Phone: (508) 856-3678
E-mail: christopher.sassetti@umassmed.edu
Pathogenesis of tuberculosis

Michael R. Volkert PhD
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Phone: (508) 856-2314
E-mail: michael.volkert@umassmed.edu
Regulation and function of DNA repair genes

Research Areas

Recombination, DNA repair, DNA methylation, transcription, bacteria-mammalian cell interaction, secretion, cell signalling, pathogenic mechanisms and regulation of toxin production.

Recent Publications (one per laboratory)

Wong SM, Alugupalli KR, Ram S, Akerley BJ. 2007. The ArcA regulon and oxidative stress resistance in Haemophilus influenzae. Molecular Microbiology. 64, 1375-90.

Garifulin, O., Qi, Z., Shen H., Patnala, S., Green, M.R. and Boyartchuk, V. (2007) Irf3 polymorphism alters induction of interferon beta in response to Listeria monocytogenes infection. PLoS Genet., 3: e152.

Pouliot K, Pan N, Wang S, Lu S, Lien E, Goguen JD. 2007. Evaluation of the role of LcrV-Toll-like receptor 2-mediated immunomodulation in the virulence of Yersinia pestis. Infection and Immunity 75, 3571-80.

Brady MJ, Campellone KG, Ghildiyal M, Leong JM. 2007. Enterohaemorrhagic and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Tir proteins trigger a common Nck-independent actin assembly pathway. Cell Microbiology 9, 2242-53.

Nowosielska A, Marinus MG. 2008. DNA mismatch repair-induced double-strand breaks. DNA Repair 7, 48-56.

Murphy KC. 2007. The lambda Gam protein inhibits RecBCD binding to dsDNA ends. J. Molecular Biology 371,19-24.

Poteete AR. 2008. Involvement of DNA replication in phage lambda Red-mediated homologous recombination. Molecular Microbiology. 68, 66-74.

Joshi SM, Pandey AK, Capite N, Fortune SM, Rubin EJ, Sassetti CM. 2006. Characterization of mycobacterial virulence genes through genetic interaction mapping. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 103, 11760-5.

Matijasevic Z, Volkert MR. 2007. Base excision repair sensitizes cells to sulfur mustard and chloroethyl ethyl sulfide. DNA Repair 6, 733-41.

Courses

Members of the BGP group teach in the following courses:

Medical Biochemistry
Medical Microbiology
MGM811, Prokaryotic Genetics, a weekly joint long distance learning journal club discussion course with UMass-Amherst
MS612, Biomedical Sciences (the graduate student core course)
MGM715, (IGP715), DNA Repair and Genome Stability
MGM741, Molecular Genetics of Bacteria

MGM742, Biology of Infectious Disease

MGM815, Advanced Bacterial Pathogenesis