3rd Annual Academic Symposium - Reed Lawson

C. burnetii causes Q fever, an acute flu-like illness, and is listed as a category B bioterrorism agent. C. burnetii’s intracellular lifestyle and disease pathogenesis resembles that of Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaire’s disease. C. burnetii, L. pneumophila, and another intracellular pathogen, Chlamydia trachomatis have all been shown to carry the macrophage infectivity potentiator (mip) gene. C. burnetii’s Mip protein (CbMip) might have some of the same characteristics, such as peptidylprolyl cis/trans isomerase activity, existing on the bacterial surface, and granting the bacteria with adherence to extracellular matrix material. Previous studies have shown that when a complementation assay has been performed with Legionella Mip (LpMip) and Escherichia coli, E. coli has then appropriated the earlier described characteristics. In this study, the C. burnetii mip gene, from a phase II strain, will be cloned in the p-TriEx vector and expressed as protein in E. coli. Protein expression will be confirmed with Western blotting. Future studies can then be performed to test the hypothesis that CbMip in E. coli will have similar characteristics as provided by LpMip. When completed, these studies will provide a better understanding of the pathogenesis of Coxiella burnetii, a largely ignored and still prevalent disease-causing pathogen.