Graduate Student - Ph.D.

Chemistry

Brown University (Providence, RI)

Jason K Sello

Chemical communication in soil bacteria: from synthesizing pheromones to molecular biology.

Streptomyces bacteria are fermented on an industrial scale to produce large quantities of their antibiotics that used as drugs in clinical medicine. Upregulation of antibiotic biosynthesis often leads to higher product yields in drug fermentations. Thus, there is much interest in understanding the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis. Low molecular weight chemical messengers are often endogenous regulators of antibiotic biosynthesis. Most of these chemical messengers are called inducers of antibiotic production. Studies of these inducers and their mechanisms of action will provide key insights into the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces bacteria. Moreover, the inducers have potential applications in the pharmaceutical industry where they can be added to Streptomyces fermentations to increase the yields of drugs. Studies and applications of these inducers have been limited because they are produced in extremely small quantities, and often in complex mixtures. We have developed efficient synthetic routes to three types of Streptomyces inducers. Our ability to access these molecules through chemical synthesis has allowed us to begin investigations regarding their biosynthesis, mechanisms of action, ecological relevance, and potential use as additives in the fermentation industry.