{"id":71,"date":"2014-09-12T06:51:04","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T10:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/?page_id=71"},"modified":"2022-07-21T09:38:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:38:06","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/welcome\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My lab studies bacteria of the genus <em><strong>Photorhabdus<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q<\/strong>: Why should you care about <em>Photorhabdus<\/em>?<br><strong>A<\/strong>: <strong style=\"color: #66ffff;line-height: 1.5;background-color: #000000\">THEY GLOW!&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact,&nbsp;<em>Photorhabdus<\/em> are the only known bioluminescent terrestrial bacteria in the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The genes that make <em>Photorhabdus<\/em> glow were transferred from other bacteria via a process called horizontal gene transfer &#8211; this is the same evolutionary process that has led to the overabundance of multi-drug resistant bacteria in many hospitals worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A<\/strong>: <em>Photorhabdus<\/em> lead a double life. These bacteria are both mutualists of <em>Heterorhabditis<\/em> spp. nematodes and deadly pathogens of many types of insect larvae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re interested in understanding how <em>Photorhabdus<\/em> successfully navigate these two lifestyles &#8211; what similar (or different) molecular mechanisms define these bugs as &#8220;friend&#8221; or &#8220;foe&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My lab pursues these and other basic questions about many aspects of <em>Photorhabdus <\/em>biology with an interdisciplinary approach: techniques range from molecular and computational biology to genetics and biochemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, we are focused on two specific areas of <em>Photorhabdus<\/em> research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A) <a href=\".\/researchaims#one\">Why do they glow &amp; how is light production regulated in these bacteria<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B) <a href=\".researchaims#two\">What is the microbial ecology of the nematode and insect larva hosts<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My lab studies bacteria of the genus Photorhabdus. Q: Why should you care about Photorhabdus?A: THEY GLOW!&nbsp; In fact,&nbsp;Photorhabdus are the only known bioluminescent terrestrial bacteria in the world! The genes that make Photorhabdus glow were transferred from other bacteria via a process called horizontal gene transfer &#8211; this is the same evolutionary process that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":79,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions\/460"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/mwollenb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}