1. PATRICIA L. HARTZELL <Hartzell@UIdaho.edu>
ADDRESS Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho 83844
(208) 885-0572 (office)
(208) 885-5914 (lab)
(208) 885-6518 (fax)
http://www.uidaho.edu/~hartzell/

2. Recent publications

LaPaglia, Christopher and Patricia Hartzell. 1997. Stress-induced Production of Biofilm in the Hyperthermophile Archaeoglobus fulgidus. Appl. & Environ. Microbiol.63: 3158-3163

Magrini, Vincent, Daniel Salmi, David Thomas, Stephen K. Herbert, Patricia L. Hartzell, and Philip Youderian. 1997. Temperate Myxococcus xanthus Phage Mx8 encodes a DNA Adenine Methylase, Mox. J. Bacteriol. 179: 4254-4263

Hartzell, Patricia L. 1997. Complementation of Myxococcus xanthus sporulation and motility defects by a eukaryotic RAS homolog. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 97:9881-9886

Salmi, Daniel, Vincent Magrini, Patricia L. Hartzell and Philip Youderian. 1998. Genetic Determinants of Immunity and Integration of Temperate Myxococcus xanthus Phage Mx8. J. Bacteriol. 180: 614-621

Dai, Yao-Ren, David W. Reed, Jack Millstein, Patricia L. Hartzell, David A. Grahame, and Edward DeMoll. 1998. Acetyl-CoA Decarbonylase/Synthase Complex from Archaeoglobus fulgidus: Purification, Characterization, and Properties. Archives of Microbiology, In press

A chaperone in the HSP70 Family controls the production of Extracellular Fibrils in Myxococcus xanthus. 1998. Robby M. Weimer, Chad Creighton, Angela Stassinopoulos, Philip Youderian, and Patricia Hartzell. J. Bacteriol, submitted.

c-type Cytochromes of Archaeoglobus fulgidus and Archaeoglobus profundus. 1998. David Reed, Kazem Kashefi, and Patricia L. Hartzell. J. Bacteriol., submitted

The aadA Gene of Plasmid R100 Confers Resistance to Spectinomycin and Streptomycin in Myxococcus xanthus. 1998. Chad Creighton, Vincent Magrini, David White, Patricia L. Hartzell, and Philip Youderian. J. Bacteriol, submitted.

3. Research interests:
I have a few people (David Reed, Jack Millstein and some undergraduates) that work on electron transfer reactions of Archaeoglobus fulgidus, a hyperthermophilic sulfate-reducer in the Archaea. The rest of the lab (David White, Angela Stassinopoulos, Aimee Kenoyer, and me) continues to study gliding. At the meeting in Greece, I will be presenting the results of our study of site-directed mutagenesis of MglA plus some new information on proteins that we believe are in the mgl pathway. David White has completed modeling studies of MglA but also is studying mutations that affect only A motility. He has identified a gene encoding what appears to be a peptidase that is needed for A motility.
Phil and I continue to work on the sglK story. Spencer MacNeil who was a graduate student in my lab at UCLA initially characterized the sglK mutation. In Idaho, Rob Weimer became interested in this mutant and Phil and I co-supervised Robbie's senior thesis project on sglK. Robbie showed that this operon includes genes encoding GrpE and DnaK homologs. These chaperones are required for production of the extracellular fibrils previously described by Shimkets and Dworkin labs. Adjacent to the sglK operon, we find a gene encoding a protein resembling the alginate repressor. As predicted, disruption of this gene results in increased expression of fibril material, presumably as a consequence of deregulation of expression of exopolysaccharide.

4. Lab news:

1. I will be chair of Division H, Molecular Biology and Genetics, for the American Society for Microbiology (1998-99). The meeting will be in Chicago next June and this is the Centennial meeting! We are looking for people to contribute ideas that will help make this a great celebration.

2. I am organizing the Myxo meeting for 1999, which will be held June 20-23. (Phil Youderian is helping although I believe that he is the one who originally volunteered to organize this meeting.) The meeting will be at the historic Timberline Lodge (a non-smoking facility!) 1 hour outside of Portland Oregon. Bring your skis and snowboard because there will be skiing at this beautiful Mt. Hood facility in June.