Mechanism and regulation of site-specific recombination

Description of projects available to graduate students:
Mycobacteriophage Bxb1 integrates its DNA into the host genome using a novel serine-integrase enzyme. We have isolated a collection of integrase mutants that are unable to perform recombination and using these to dissect the mechanisms of recombination. We not only have a procient in vitro reocmbination system available to us, but also have a number of in vitro assays that enable us to examine different part of teh pathway, including protein dimerization, DNA binding, synapsis, initiation of strand exchange, strand rotation, and rejoining. A new set of suicide substrates are particuarly informative and in this project you will take a selected set of mutants and characterize their ability to bind and synapse these substrates.

Techniques graduate student will learn:
Biochemistry, DNA binding, gel electrophoresis etc.