Givi Mchedlishvili Rose Hills
Investigating the Role of DNA Topology in IS621-Mediated Recombination
There are many prevalent gene-editing tools that have been discovered in microbial communities. Editing these communities can allow us to modulate bacterial composition in a way that has relevance for human gut health, including illnesses such as Crohn’s disease, Colitis, and IBD. The Cress lab studies IS110s, a family of bacterial insertion sequences. These are gene editing tools that rearrange genetic sequences to perform inversions, excisions, and insertions within the bacterial genome. In particular, we have studied the IS621 ortholog of IS110, which is derived from E. coli. We performed efficient recombination of genetic material at the multikilobase-level with IS621. However, it remains unclear how IS621 interacts with the DNA topology of the bacterial genome. DNA topology refers to the three-dimensional arrangement of DNA, which results from protein-DNA interactions. A critical question that this project will aim to answer is: does DNA topology affect the recombination efficiency of IS621 in E. coli? Understanding the efficacy of this gene editing tool at various sites of the genome will give valuable insight into the mechanism and limitation of IS110s.
Message To Sponsor
I sincerely appreciate your support of my research. This fellowship gives me the opportunity to dedicate a significant amount of time with the Cress lab to answer relevant questions surrounding our area of study. This will be an insightful experience for me, and it would not be possible without your generosity.