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School of Medicine • University of Washington • Box 357735 • 1705 NE Pacific St • Seattle WA 98195
   
  About Varisa Huangyutitham  

Amy Schaefer Varisa Huangyutitham
Graduate Student

Email:
varisah@uw.edu

Phone:
(206) 221-2850

Location:
HSB K-359

Mailing Address:
UW Box 357242
Seattle WA 98195

Shipping Address:
HSB K-359
1708 NE Pacific St
Seattle WA 98195

   Research  
 


I received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Cornell University 2004.  After graduation I stayed on the Cornell campus for a year and worked in the labs of Dr. Anthony Hay and Dr. Daniel Buckley on E. coli biofilm formation and soil microbial diversity, respectively. I am now a graduate student in the Department of Microbiology at University of Washington working in Dr. Caroline Harwood’s lab.

 

     The intracellular secondary messenger cyclic-di-GMP regulates the switch between the biofilm lifestyle and the planktonic lifestyle in bacteria. One way to regulate c-di-GMP is through subcellular localization of diguanylate cyclases, which catalyze the formation of c-di-GMP. The diguanylate cyclase WspR in Pseudomonas aeruginosa has interesting localization properties, which can be visualized by fusing WspR to a yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). In planktonic, broth-grown P. aeruginosa cells, WspR-YFP is diffuse throughout the cytoplasm.  However, WspR-YFP localizes into subcellular clusters at the peripheries of the cell when the bacteria are grown on an agar surface. WspR cluster formation is linked to exopolysaccharide (EPS) synthesis as mutants with constitutive WspR clustering overproduce EPS, whereas mutants in which WspR will not cluster are deficient in EPS production.

I am interested in how the structure of WspR contributes to its localization properties and cyclase activity. My goal is to further untangle the relationships between cluster formation, WspR activation, and c-di-GMP production.  Some questions I’m considering are: What causes WspR to cluster in response to surface growth? Is WspR delivering c-di-GMP to specific proteins and if so, what are they?