Learn more about this group by contacting Dr. Diana Downs (dmdowns@uga.edu).
Microbial Physiology and Ecology (MPE) includes research groups that are unified by their focus on understanding the fundamental biology of microorganisms and their interactions between themselves, other organisms and the environment. Research across the MPE group addresses basic and applied questions and takes advantage of wide ranging technical approaches.
Biodiversity; insect ecology; the role of soil microbes and defensive plant chemistry in plant/herbivore interactions, predator/prey interactions; sustainable agriculture
Plant population and community ecology; plant-microbe interactions, global change biology; microbial ecology
Marine microbial ecology; phytoplankton physiology; ocean biogeochemistry; environmental bioinformatics
Bacterial physiology and metabolic integration using biochemical, genetic and metabolomics approaches.
Fermentation and biotechnology with emphasis on microbial processes to generate fuels and chemicals; nutrient-limited processes; central metabolism and the effect of redox constraints.
Prokaryotic metabolism and physiology with emphasis on protein acetylation, toxic metabolites,
and complex metabolic pathway analysis, integration.
We investigate the development and spread of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella,
which is the most prevalent foodborne bacterial illness in the U.S.
Retrovirus-like transposons in budding yeast, control of transposition, restriction factors.
Interactions between microbial pathogens and host immunity in the
mouse model using bacteria that naturally infect mice and
closely related strains that are important human pathogens.
Lipidomic and metabolomic analyses of antimicrobial resistant pathogens using ion mobility and mass spectrometry
Gene regulation in bacteria; regulation of flagellar biogenesis; control of RpoN-dependent transcription in bacteria.
Mechanisms for microbial adaptation and virulence; specialized
DNA recombination in Neisseria meningitidis & N. gonorrhoeae;
sigma54 regulon in Salmonella Typhimurium.
Molecular mechanisms of plant immune action and bacterial pathogen virulence in model and crop pathosystems. Tool/technique development for phytopathogenesis systems biology and translational research.
Bacterial pathogenesis; role of adhesins in virulence; vaccine development.
Chromatin structure and function; Epigenetics; Eukaryotic genome stability; Histone H1.
Human fungal pathogens, sexual reproduction and development in fungal pathogenesis
Environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, marine systems, water quality and public health, disease ecology
X-ray crystallography of macromolecules, prokaryotic transcriptional regulators.
Metabolism and drug development against protozoan parasites.
Calcium signaling and storage in Toxoplasma gondii.
We use the easy genetic system of a soil bacterium, Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1,to study diverse
aspects of gene expression and chromosomal rearrangements.This research has implications
for medical issues (gene amplification), environmental issues (bioremediation),
biotechnology/bioenergy (conversion of lignin to biofuels), and evolution (new methods for experimental evolution).
Ecology and evolution of heritable symbiosis in insects.
Ecology and physiology of environmental microbes. The use of community genomics and
transcriptomics to examine microbial behavior in natural systems.
Molecular epidemiology of bacterial pathogens using metagenomics; ecology of Salmonella serovars in host animals and environments.
Bacterial modulation of eukaryotic membrane dynamics for intracellular survival;
SNARE-dependent membrane fusion biochemistry.
Environmental stress biology, using biochemical, biophysical, and ‘omics approaches to define
the roles of toxic metal exposure in chronic and infectious diseases.
Microbial glycobiology lab characterizing bacterial glycoconjugate pathways, bacteriophage interactions with their hosts, and benefits of human milk oligosaccharides to develop novel vaccines and therapeutics for the prevention of diarrheal diseases and post-infectious neuropathies such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
We study CRISPR-Cas immune systems that protect prokaryotes from viruses and provide
powerful research tools for important biotechnology and biomedical applications.
Characterizing the assembly of bacterial surface structures, Development of vaccines for viral
and bacterial pathogens, Systems approaches to understanding microbial diseases
Quantitative genetics, crop genomics, crop-microbiome interactions.