Feb. 6, 2012: Dr. Jeffrey Mital, cell molecular biologist position finalist, to present lecture

Monday, Feb. 6, 4-5 p.m.
Administration Building, Room 204

The Department of Biological Sciences and INBRE are pleased to have Dr. Jeffrey Mital, finalist for the cell molecular biologist position, present "Subversion of the host microtubule network by Chlamydia trachomatis secreted effector proteins."

Dr. Mital is a post-doctoral fellow at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories branch of the National Institutes of Health in Hamilton, Mont.

Abstract:
Chlamydia trachomatis is the leading cause of sexually transmitted disease in the Western world and of infectious blindness in the world. Chlamydiae are Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacteria that reside within a membrane bound vacuole termed the inclusion. The nascent inclusion repositions itself at the microtubule-organizing center and selectively interacts with vesicular pathways to acquire lipids and nutrients from the host cell, while remaining non-fusogenic with the host endosomal pathway. There is little functional information regarding the proteins involved in initial inclusion repositioning or subsequent cargo acquisition. A siRNA screen was performed to identify the host factors involved in trafficking sphingolipids to the chlamydial inclusion. Follow up analysis of one candidate gene, the Src-family kinase Fyn, has led to the identification of novel microdomain-like structures on the inclusion membrane. Subsequent studies have indicated that these microdomains and their component proteins mediate the interaction of the inclusion with the host microtubule network and have also revealed species-specific differences in the requirements for host factors during chlamydial development. This research provides new insights into chlamydia's interaction with host cells and advances our understanding of chlamydial pathogenesis.