Lourdes González

Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco (UNSAAC), Perú. B. S. in Biology

University of San Francisco, CA. M. S. in Biology (Fulbright Scholarship)

U.N.S.A.A.C. Microbiology Professor in the Biology Department

San Francisco State University. CA. Currently on Sabbatical year doing research at Marquez-Magaña Lab, Department of Biology.

Current Project: Transformation of Paenibacillus.

Email : Gonlourdes@hotmail.com

Paenibacillus is a recently described genus within the Bacillaceae composed of newly described species as well as re-assigned species from the Bacillus and Clostridium genera based on 16S rDNA analysis. Paenibacillus spp. are gram-positive, spore forming, biofilm producing, exhibit complex, cooperative, intraspecific multicellular behavior, cell to cell communication, they are associated with the rhizosphere, nitrogen fixation, inducing plant growth and waste effluent. Paenibacillus have gene products capable of desulfurizing petroleum products, utilizing hydrocarbons as their energy source and they have bioremediation applications. A particular enigmatic phenomenon of Paenibacillus is their occurrence in laboratory cultures of fungi and bacteria.

The Marquez-Magaña Lab isolated a species of Paenibacillus designated LMB265 that has been found to be a co-isolate in the Bacillus subtilis lab strain JH642, LMB265 has a distinctive morphotype on hard agar plates coined the sunburst morphotype . The elaboration of this morphotype has been found to be dependent upon surface-based, or swarming motility. Swarming motility is dependent upon the flagellar organelle that is used for swimming or liquid-based motility. Swarming cells require the production of wetting fluid composed of extracellular polysaccharides for their movement across solid surfaces. LMB265 has multiple antibiotic resistance at concentrations normally used to select for B. subtilis transformants. LMB265 is not naturally competent for transformation making it unsuitable for genetic manipulation; therefore, the overall goal of our work is to transform LMB265 to make it genetically tractable. Since this strain has a multiple antibiotic resistance and it is sensitive to neomycin; we made LMB265 chemically competent, and successfully generated neomycin resistant transformants of LMB265 unable to form appropriate patterns. We are currently working to confirm the integration of the neo cassette in the transformants.

LMB265

Swarming LMB265