Graduate Student - Ph.D.

Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)

Jon Beckwith

Using genetic tools such as suppressor analysis, I am working to better understand the cytoplasmic redox pathways in E. coli.

In the cytoplasm of E. coli, enzymes form disulfide bonds as a part of their catalytic cycles. The reducing environment of the cytoplasm is however maintained by the thioredoxin and glutaredoxin pathways. One substrate of these pathways, ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), is essential for cell viability, and we can therefore perform suppressor analysis, selecting for growth of mutants that lack both pathways. My work has identified mutations in lipoamide dehydrogenase that suppress the cytoplasmic redox defect, and I am currently trying to further characterize these mutants.