Intellectual merit: Biofilms, or surface-associated microbial communities encased within a complex matrix, allow bacteria to grow on a wide variety of surfaces including crops, teeth, contact lenses, and at the air-water interface. Development of the biofilm community depends upon the production of compounds contained within this matrix. Genes encoding such compounds are organized in long DNA arrays known as operons; the RNA that is synthesized based on such operons is very long, which means that there must be particular mechanisms in place to ensure that the RNA synthesis is not prematurely interrupted during the process of elongation of this polymer. This project pursues an altered mode of RNA elongation, called "processive antitermination" that may be generally required for expression of these operons and of greater importance to bacterial biology than previously realized. The research in this program will explore the biological purposes and the basic requirements for such processive antitermination mechanisms. Broader impact: This project will involve graduate and visiting undergraduate students. The summer undergraduate students who will participate in this research will be enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where they are typically unable to participate in traditional, summer-long research fellowships due to other training commitments. Therefore, the project will offer them shorter, more intense research opportunities that can still accommodate their other summer responsibilities. This project will also directly improve the graduate training environment at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Specifically, a new short-course will be developed for the Biological Chemistry Ph.D. students that will cover the theory and application of massively parallel DNA sequencing methodologies, which are techniques that are important for this research. Finally, in addition to these undergraduate and graduate student populations, plans will be implemented to positively influence a third student group - that of elementary school children. In Carl Sagan's last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, he argued that scientists share a social responsibility to communicate clearly their efforts to the general public. It is the absence of this communication, he argued, that causes the general public to become less knowledgeable of such concepts as statistics, epidemiology, electricity, and chemistry and, as a result, to become increasingly mistrustful of general scientific pursuits. Therefore, all individuals who receive funding from this project will help present a series of themed lectures to a diverse population of Dallas-area elementary students. These lectures will serve two purposes. First, the students will be exposed to basic microbiology concepts, including the topics of this research project. Second, the students will interact with an enthusiastic and culturally diverse group of scientific researchers, thereby imparting upon them the clear message that anybody can aspire to become a scientist.
