URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2024_M

KATHRYN RAMSEY

Assistant Professor Cell and Molecular Biology

“The way this connects to disease is that we know that at least one of these ribosomal proteins is important for making virulence proteins, and is important for survival in a host.” - Kathryn Ramsey

To understand how ribosomes could influence bacteria to cause disease, Ramsey and her lab are looking at how the ribosomal protein bS21 influences heterogeneity and gene expression. They’re currently studying an organism that causes tularemia, a disease that is rare in humans but can cause a flu-like illness and can be lethal if not detected and treated. Ramsey works with a strain of this organism, Francisella tularensis , that was developed as a vaccine and is attenuated so it can only infect animals, not humans. She likes this organism because it only has one way for ribosomes to be heterogeneous—it has three different versions of a single ribosomal protein, bS21.

Ribosomes typically carry out an essential process called translation, but this particular protein is a bit mysterious: it doesn’t seem to be essential for making proteins. Instead, it might function as a regulatory factor for preferential production of specific proteins. And while many bacteria have one version of bS21, Francisella tularensis cells make three of them. “The way this connects to disease is that we know at least one of these ribosomal proteins is important for making virulence proteins, and is important for survival in a host,” Ramsey says. “This is a simple way for us to start asking the question ‘How do changes in ribosome composition affect translation’.”

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