Our research group investigates post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in bacteria. Our overarching goal is to: develop methods for discovering post-transcriptional regulatory circuitry, examine their biological distribution and molecular evolution, characterize their underlying mechanisms, and assess their potential as drug targets. Many different classes of cis- and trans-acting regulatory RNAs have been discovered, which have been shown to individually respond to proteins, RNAs, small molecules, or even physical cues. Although one of our interests is in the development of methods for the global analyses of RNA-protein regulatory networks we focus most of our investigative attention on metabolite-sensing regulatory RNAs. Over a dozen separate classes of metabolite-responsive regulatory RNAs have been uncovered. Additionally, more than 20 'orphan' riboswitch classes have been proposed. We predict that several such orphan classes are primarily responsible for controlling certain cellular stress responses, while other classes coordinate biochemical pathways in ways that we do not yet fully understand. Since each of these RNAs offers a 'window' into a different biochemical pathway, metabolic interrelationship, or stress response, we are broadly interested in gaining insights into microbial stress responses, developmental pathways, and cellular communication mechanisms through study of bacterial post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms.

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