Andrea Vucicevic

My research interest is ICEclc, an Integrative and Conjugative Element present in two identical copies in the bacterium Pseudomonas knackmussii B13, the first bacterium known to degrade chloroaromatic compounds such as 3-chlorobenzoate (3CBA). ICEclc is ‘special’, because it encodes the enzymes for 3CBA metabolism. ICEclc is further ‘special’, because it can self-transfer to other bacterial species, but only when it ‘transforms’ the host cell to an ICE-transfer machine. Curiously, only 3-5% of individual cells in stationary phase develop this state; in the others, nothing seems to happen. 

The aim of my project is to unravel the network of regulatory decisions that lead to ICEclc activation. I have co-discovered nine specific genes and gene clusters on ICEclc, which coordinately become activated for ICE transfer. I am now studying how these promoters become activated and which specific sequence elements are important for determining this bistable activation.