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I am interested in microbial evolution and the mechanisms that facilitate genetic exchange between bacteria. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) plays an important role in the acquisition of new properties, such as pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance, and is therefore a driving force in "short-term" evolution, allowing bacteria to be masters of adaptation. The development of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria is a major healthcare problem around the world and strains commonly become resistant by acquiring pre-existing resistance determinants from the bacterial gene pool. Mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, transposons and insertion sequences, play a central role in facilitating HGT and therefore promote the acquisition and spread of these resistance determinants. As such, bacterial populations can rapidly become resistant when exposed to an antimicrobial agent.
Strains of Staphylococcus aureus "Golden Staph" are a major cause of hospital-acquired infections and most clinical strains contain multiple resistance plasmids. My research focuses on molecular mechanisms, such as active DNA segregation and co-ordinated transcriptional regulation, that contribute to the capacity of staphylococcal plasmids to acquire and maintain resistance genes in the absence of selective pressure (i.e. antimicrobial agents). I am also interested in the mechanisms that facilitate chromosomal DNA segregation in the staphylococci.
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