What are the transcriptomic changes
during colony phase variation in bacteria?

Phase variation occurs when genetic or epigenetic events generate phenotypic heterogeneity in an otherwise isogenic population. Facultative pathogens of the bacterial genus Vibrio can reversibly or irreversibly vary their colony phenotypes in order to adapt to the mercurial nature of their surroundings. Switching to the biofilm-proficient “rugose” phenotype confers many survival advantages to vibrios, including enhanced resistance to phage infection, chlorine exposure, and osmotic and oxidative stress. In Vibrio spp., colonial phase variation is controlled by a complex regulatory network that also governs virulence gene expression, biofilm formation, and motility. As a collaboration with the lab of Gregg Pettis, we are searching for transcriptome signals that govern structural and metabolic changes during colony phenotype transitions in pathogenic vibrios in order to better understand their mechanisms of environmental persistence and pathogenesis. 

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Detailed results from this project can be found at:

B. Lambert, M. Dassanayake†, D. Oh, S. Garrett, S.Y. Lee, and G. S. Pettis (2016), A novel phase variant of the cholera pathogen shows stress-adaptive cryptic transcriptomic signatures. BMC Genomics. 17:914 doi: 10.1186/s12864-016-3233-x

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