Current Research Interests

Many bacteria are exposed to a variety of environments during their lifecycles.  These environments may be both inside and outside the host, and particular signals in these environments may activate expression of genes that result in changes that allow the bacterium to cope more effectively with the specific environment.  One of the current aims of research in the R-J lab is to understand how symbiotic bacteria survive in many distinct environments, including those encountered during the course of interaction with the host, by identifying and characterizing genes that are expressed in each environment.  Thus, our primary research aim is to determine the physiological requirements for bacteria to live within the eukaryotic host and the bacterial gene regulation in the host environment.

From 2002-2013, the model system that the R-J lab initially used use to address these problems was the facultative intracellular bacterium Shigella flexneri, which encounters many different environments during its journey through the external environment and human host.  More information can be found here about this work.

Beginning in 2006, The R-J lab began working with a second intracellular bacterium that lives inside eukaryotic cells.  This bacterium, Sodalis glossinidius, is a facultative intracellular bacterium that is a secondary symbiont of the tsetse fly.  The Sodalis genome has recently been sequenced, and the bacterium is phylogenetically related to E. coli.  We plan to use this bacterium as a model organism to address the question “What are the physiological requirement for intracellular life, regardless of type of endosymbiosis?”.  Our current work focuses on the role and regulation of heme, iron, and blood tolerance mechanisms of Sodalis.  Additionally, we have just started a project on how Sodalis utlize sugars, including the chitin-derived N-acetylglucosamine.

Beginning in 2023:  Dr. R-J is starting project in the area of food microbiology, particularly fermentation and cheese production. Stay tuned for more information on this new area.

Work in the R-J lab has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Thomas F. Jeffress and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, and the University of Richmond School of Arts and Science.