``About 40 percent of those genes are of unknown function,`` said Harley McAdams, a senior research scientist in the Stanford Department of Developmental Biology and principal investigator of the Stanford Microbial Cell Project.
``Trying to unravel the complete communication network of this bug is a very big and complicated problem,`` he said.
Last year, McAdams and Stanford colleagues received a Defense Department grant to study cellular regulation in C. crescentus and three other organisms.
``The two grants will complement one another,`` said McAdams, noting that DOE is interested in C. crescentus because of its potential as a bioremediation agent.
``Studies show that C. crescentus is capable of converting mercury, copper, cadmium, cobalt and other heavy metals into chemical forms that are less soluble and less toxic to people,`` said project member Alfred M. Spormann, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.
``DOE would like to find a bug that can go down and turn these toxic chemicals into something benign,`` McAdams noted, adding that colonies of C. crescentus often are found growing in noxious blooms in aquifers deep underground.
Conventional laboratories allow microbes to grow in non-stressful conditions, providing them with an abundance of food and an ideal living environment, he says.
``But in the wild, bacteria spend most of the time starving, because it`s a tough life out there,`` McAdams said. ``By exposing these organisms to a wide range of nutritional restrictions and environmental stimuli, including toxic chemicals, we will be able to pinpoint which genes turn on and off under different stresses. This will help define the purpose of some genes whose function is currently unknown.``
Asymmetrical reproduction
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that reproduce by splitting in half - creating
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Contact: Mark Shwartz
mshwartz@stanford.edu
650-723-9296
Stanford University
9-Nov-2001