Identification of Campylobacter Jejuni Factors That Influence Chicken Commensalism

During the project period I will be continuing two projects that arose from the original NIFA funding:1. From the TnSeq screen that was conducted in chickens, I identified a regulator that was significantly decreased for colonization. I have identified, by RNAseq analysis, that this regulator is involved in controlling expression of the heme uptake genes in Ccampylobacter jejuni. I will be working to further charactrize this regulator by looking at direct interactions of the protein with the heme uptake gene promoter and am collaborating with groups at Vanderbilt and the University of Chicago to look at effects on heme uptake and the structure of the regulator, respectively.2. From the small molecule inhibitor screen, I identified several compounds that specifically inhibited growth of C. jejuni in vitro. Recently, I generated mutants to these compounds and have sequenced the genomes to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that may be responsible for resistance. I will be
working to determine whether these mutated genes are in fact the targets of thesmall molecule inhibitors.