Qian Dong
Graduate Student

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My research focuses on cyst formation process of a photosynthetic α-proteobacterium, Rhodospirillum centenum. Previous research showed that cyclic GMP (cGMP), synthesized by the guanylyl cyclase (GC) RC1_3783, and regulates the timing of cyst cell development in R. centenum. Wild-type R. centenum excretes large amounts of cGMP when transitioning from vegetative growth into encystment, whereas the strain deleted for the guanylyl cyclase fails to synthesize cGMP, is severely disrupted in cyst-cell maturation, and can be complemented by exogenously added cGMP. Just downstream of rc1_3783, there are two open reading frames rc1_3786 and rc1_3787 encode for single domain conserved hypothetical proteins. This gene cluster, homologs of these two open reading frames associating with nucleotide cyclase, is found in several α-proteobacterial species. Both in-frame deletion mutants of rc1_3786 and rc1_3787 undergo delayed cyst formation without excreting cGMP, which indicates that they are involved in cyst formation regulation process. The goal of my research is to elucidate the involvement of these two genes in cGMP signaling cascade.