*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Atlanta, GA | Posted: August 19, 2019
Summary Sentence:
Analysis of Vibrio cholerae genomes identifies new type VI secretion system gene clusters
Full Summary:
No summary paragraph submitted.
Cristian Crisan
Aroon Chande Microbes live inside crowded communities in the environment and in hosts. Many wield a toxin-tipped harpoon called the Type 6 Secretion System (T6SS) to poke and kill competitors. The pathogenic bacterium Vibrio cholerae uses its T6SS weapon to survive in water and cause massive outbreaks of fatal cholera. In places like Yemen and Haiti, where water supplies are often contaminated and proper sanitation techniques are unavailable, cholera epidemics cause thousands of deaths. Only a few V. cholerae T6SS toxins have been described in prior studies that focused on outbreak strains, but the Hammer lab suspected novel toxins might be discovered by examining less-studied samples from environmental sources. In a collaborative study published in Genome Biology with Georgia Tech colleagues from the Jordan and Yunker labs, graduate students Cristian Crisan and Aroon Chande develop a computational tool, find several new T6SS toxins, and show that one of them is highly efficient at killing competitors. Currently, Cristian is studying the molecular mechanism by which another of the toxins can kill other cells.
