Prof Elizabeth Sockett
| Overview | Research | Publications | Opportunities |
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| Rhodobacter sphaeroides Showing coiled single flagellum | Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus |
Rhodobacter
Our first research interests at Nottingham were and remain, the genetics & biochemistry of bacterial motility in the model bacterium Rhodobacter. Bacteria move by rotating helical structures (called flagella) that stick out from their cell walls, like propellers on a ship. At the base of each flagellum lies a molecular motor that uses hydrogen ions from water to produce movement. Movement of bacteria allows them to colonise hosts & cause infections. The mechanism of the movement is not well understood, but could have biotechnological and therapeutic applications.
Our group, with BBSRC, NERC and MRC funding, are investigating the structure and function of motor proteins. We continue to do so, partly in collaboration with Dr Shin-Ichi Aizawa of the Soft Nanomachine Project Japan.
We are also members of a large MRC-BBSRC funded, £6 million 5 Year, Interdisciplinary Research Co-operative on Nanotechnology that is co-ordinated across 7 universities by Professor John Ryan from the Physics Department at University of Oxford. Using genetics we have found crucial parts of the motor proteins that let in the hydrogen ion fuel, and others that are responsible for turning the motors on and off. The engineered motor proteins that we have produced are being tested for their biophysical properties as part of this IRC project.
We are also currently involved in an international collaboration on the Rhodobacter genome run by Professor Samuel Kaplan University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston and Dr Mark Gomelsky at University of Wyoming. In this work we are examining the regulators of flagellar and photosynthesis genes and the role of orthologous genes in bacterial physiology.
Bdellovibrio
Our second and rapidly expanding research interest concerns the molecular genetics and biochemistry of motile predatory Bdellovibrio bacteria, which swim after & eat other bacteria.
We are characterising, with Wellcome Trust, NERC and BBSRC funding, the molecular basis of predation and testing for and host resistance with a view to applying motile Bdellovibrio bacteria as anti-pathogen agents. Some of this work is in collaboration with Dr Stephan Schuster of the Max Planck Institute for Development at Tuebingen who is determining the genomic sequence of Bdellovibrio strains. Together we have recently published a paper on the analysis of the first-ever genomic sequence from a predatory bacterium . ( Science 30th Jan 2004 Vol 303 p689-692)
We have also been working on genes required for Bdellovibrio to find and attack their prey. In Nottingham we have recently developed a genetic method to knock out Bdellovibrio genes and to assay the effects of this upon predation, in the process establishing that bacterial chemotaxis contributes to the predatory process.
Inter-disciplinary work
In addition to our core molecular genetic research, I have found that we can use our knowledge to carry out interdisciplinary bacterial research on motility and other topics. This has been a useful avenue for collaboration with other workers at Nottingham. I have recently worked with Prof Paul Williams (Institute of Infections & Immunity) Dr John Ward (Mathematical Sciences University of Loughborough) & Prof John King (School of Mathematical Sciences Nottingham) on mathematical modelling of the behaviour of Pseudomonas bacteria during wound infections.
Recently we have been awarded an earmarked NERC EMS Studentship with Professor King as co-supervisor to apply mathematical modelling to the Bdellovibrio predation system. We will also be investigating the physical properties of flagellar filaments in a new collaborative Nanotechnology IDTC PhD studentship project with Dr Stephanie Allen and Professor Saul Tendler who research atomic force microscopy and other biophysical techniques in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Nottingham.
We have an ongoing collaboration funded by BBSRC and EPSRC with Dr Jon McMaster and Professor Dave Garner in the School of Chemistry using Rhodobacter to engineer and express recombinant molybdoenzymes such as DMSO reductase with altered metal centres. This work facilitates the spectroscopic characterisation of the active sites of these mutants and the roles that the metals and surrounding amin-acid moieties play in catalysis.
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Rhodobacter sphaeroides
The flagellated bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides is often used in our experiments |
| Artists impression of the flagellum inserted into the photosynthetic membrane of Rhodobacter sphaeroides, by Johnathon Soul (B.Sc. Zoology 1995) |  |
