Mark J. McBride
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P.O. Box413
Milwaukee, WI 53201
(414) 229-5844
Fax (414) 229-3926
mcbride@uwm.edu

Recent Publications:

1. Agarwal, S., Hunnicutt, D. W., and M. J. McBride. 1997. Cloning and
characterization of the Flavobacterium johnsoniae (Cytophaga johnsonae)
gliding motility gene, gldA. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94: 12139-12144.

Research Interests:

My lab is using molecular and genetic techniques to study gliding
motility in two unrelated bacteria, Flavobacterium johnsoniae (formerly
known as Cytophaga johnsonae) and Lysobacter brunescens. These bacteria
are not closely related to each other or to the myxobacteria. Most of the
members of my lab study F. johnsoniae motility. We are interested in
determining the mechanism(s) employed by these bacteria to glide. We are
also interested in exploring the similarities and differences between
Flavobacterium gliding motility and myxobacterial gliding motility.
By a combination of complementation and transposon mutagenesis we
have identified 5 different regions of the F. johnsoniae genome that are
required for gliding motility. We are currently analyzing the genes in
these regions, and the proteins that they code for, in order to develop a
model to explain flavobacterial gliding motility.

Personnel:

Jim Wahlberg (Masters student)
Mike Kempf (Ph. D. student)
Sarika Agarwal (postdoc)
Dave Hunnicutt (postdoc)