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.