Chemistry Department Seminar 4:00 PM Friday, September 28, 2012 Room 304 Chemistry Building

From O2 generation to persistence in Staphylococcus aureus: New biology and chemistry from the CDE protein superfamily

Dr. Jennifer DuBois Center for Infectious Disease and Biodefense Research SRI International

Though a tremendous amount of information has been produced from genome sequencing, a large fraction (30-50%) of the basic prokaryotic genome remains functionally ambiguous. This biological “dark matter” obscures a great deal of basic cellular biochemistry. It also contains unexplored targets for the development of health, agricultural, and biotechnological applications. A major project area in our group began with studies of a newly evolved microbial protein that decomposes chlorite an industrial water contaminant. This protein catalyzes the biologically and chemically unusual conversion of chlorite into Cl- and O2, generating an O-O bond. We are thoroughly characterizing this reaction via a combination of biochemical and physical techniques. At the same time, we recognized that this protein derives from a large and diverse family, itself a subset of an even larger structural superfamily, neither of which is functionally well understood. Our efforts to characterize key representatives of the superfamily have revealed connections to heme metabolism and persistent infections of Staphylococcus aureus and potentially other species.

Jennifer DuBois is a senior scientist at the Stanford Research Institute (Infectious Diseases and Biodefense Program in the Biosciences Division). Her research focuses on protein structure, spectra, and function, as well as the metabolic pathways into which proteins are organized. Her work with microbial systems has focused on identifying and then characterizing interesting, novel, and potentially useful processes at both the protein and genetic levels, with a special emphasis on redox biochemistry and the biochemistry of metals such as iron and copper. Dr. DuBois did her PhD at Stanford and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

Refreshments at 3:45pm in the lobby Host: Dean Harman