Department of Biology

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Research interests lie in the broader field of molecular bacterial genetics and in areas such as:

i) bacterial cell-cell signalling (quorum sensing) in the oncogenic bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens and the ethanologenic bacterium Zymomonas mobilis: study of signaling pheromones, pheromone-dependent transcriptional activators and networks of genes induced,

ii) genomics and transcriptomics of the ethanologenic bacterium Z. mobilis,

iii) DNA repair and SOS induction in Z. mobilis – knock-out strain construction,

iv) plasmid biology: plasmid replication, stabilization, copy-number control via positive/negative regulators, horizontal gene transfer,

v) transposable elements and their use in strain construction, and

vi) higher plant transformation with the use of conjugative bacteria as transgene donors.

Recently commenced is research on (i) biofilm formation by important food pathogens at the genomic level, and (ii) metagenomic analysis and strain engineering in lignocellulosic-degrading microorganisms aiming to biofuel production.