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Research Description I'm a third year student in the Ruby lab, and I'm interested in the role of the AinS quorum-sensing system in setting up and maintaining the Vibrio fischeri-Euprymna scolopes symbiosis. The initiation and persistence of this symbiosis requires a specific series of signals and activities, some of which are controlled by the AinS system. This quorum-sensing system has been found to be essential for normal initiation of the colonization and persistence within the light organ. AinS produces a signal molecule, which, when it reaches a threshold concentration in the environment, interacts with a signaling cascade that results in the upregulation of the transcriptional activator LitR, which in turn regulates a number of genes. Among other things, the LuxR gene is upregulated, setting up the LuxI quorum-sensing system. Of the many genes regulated by AinS, I am particularly interested in the role of the metabolic genes and their potential implications in survival in the light organ, as well as an RpoS-like sigma factor that is controlled in part by AinS. I hope that in understanding the role of AinS, and the genes it controls, in the symbiosis, we can gain a better understanding of both the activities needed to establish the relationship as well as the timing of those events.
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