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International Plasmid Biology Advisory Board
Manuel Espinosa, Spain
Laura Frost, Canada
Donald Helinski, USA
Clarence Kado, USA
Jan Nesvera, Czech Republic
David Romero, Mexico
Christopher M. Thomas, UK
Program
William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, 3959 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Saturday June 22
12:00 Registration
18:00 Welcome Reception
19:00 Dinner
Sunday June 23
07:30 Breakfast at the Union
08:15 Opening Remarks: Dr. Arthur S. Levine, Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences and Dean, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
REPLICATION I (Chairperson: Saleem Khan, Pittsburgh)
08:30 Keynote Address: Deepak Bastia (Charleston)
Oligomerization of the yeast replication terminator protein, Fob1p is critical for its ability to arrest replication forks
09:10 EMBO Young Investigator Lecture: Igor Konieczny (Gdansk)
Host specific mechanisms for helicase complex formation at the origin of a broad host range plasmid
09:40 Marcin Filutowicz (Madison)
Monomers and dimers of p Protein and what they do to make plasmid R6K happy
10:10 Coffee Break
10:40 Dhruba Chattoraj (Bethesda)
Relaxation of autorepression of the initiator gene of plasmid P1 relaxes the plasmid copy number control
11:10 Aresa Toukdarian (San Diego)
A specific region in the N-terminus of the TrfA-44 replication initiation protein of plasmid RK2 is required for recruitment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa DnaB helicase to the plasmid origin
11:30 Rafael Giraldo (Madrid)
Structural changes in the pPS10 replication initiator, RepA, upon binding to origin DNA
11:50 Lunch and Departure to Fallingwater OR Pirates Baseball Game
18:00 Dinner
REPLICATION II (Chairperson: Donald Helinski, San Diego)
19:00 Keynote Address: Gerhart Wagner (Uppsala)
Antisense RNA in plasmids and beyond
19:40 Sabine Brantl (Jena)
Antisense RNA-mediated transcriptional attenuation: A comparison between Gram-positive bacteria and E. coli
20:00 George Chaconas (London, Canada)
Replication of the linear plasmid LP17 from Borrelia burgdorferi, the lyme disease spirochete
20:30 Coffee Break
21:00 Saleem Khan (Pittsburgh)
Role of the PcrA helicase in the replication of rolling-circle plasmids
21:30 William Firshein (Middletown)
Identification of a novel gene product that suppresses the toxicity of a TrfA peptide from plasmid RK2 and its relationship to the DnaA host initiation protein
21:50 Grzegorz Wegrzyn (Gdansk)
Replication of lambda plasmids carried out by the heritable replication complex
22:10- Tateo Itoh (Nagano)
22:30 Plasmids of the ColE2 family with initiator proteins that synthesize the origin-specific primers
Monday June 24
07:30 Breakfast at the Union
PARTITION/STABILITY (Chairperson: Christopher M. Thomas, Birmingham)
08:30 Keynote Address: Stuart Austin (Frederick)
Time lapse photomicroscopy of P1 plasmid partition in living cells
09:10 Barbara Funnell (Toronto)
The interaction of ParA and ParB proteins during P1 plasmid partition in Escherichia coli
09:40 Finbarr Hayes (Manchester)
NMR studies of ParG, a protein required for active partition of bacterial plasmids
10:00 Juan Alonso (Madrid)
The regulatory protein T from the broad-host range Streptococcus pyogenes plasmid pSM19035: Analysis of binding to operator DNA with one to four heptad repeats
10:20 Coffee Break
10:50 Kenn Gerdes (Odense)
Prokaryotic analogue of the eukaryotic spindle apparatus
11:20 Ramon Diaz-Orejas (Madrid)
The structure of the kid toxin: Localization of functional regions and comparison with the CcdB toxin and with other homologous toxins
11:40 Monika Oberer (Graz)
Solution structure and dynamics of the antitoxin ParD from the plasmid RK2/RP4 killing module
12:00 David Summers (Cambridge)
ColE1 dimer resolution: How does synaptic complex structure prevent catastrophic dimer formation?
12:30 Lunch
TRANSFER I (Chairperson: Manuel Espinosa, Madrid)
14:00 Peter Christie (Houston)
Biogenesis of the T-DNA transfer system of Agrobacterium tumefaciens
14:30 Clarence Kado (Davis)
Conservation of a C2H2-zinc finger-containing regulator of virulence and oncogenes of the Ti plasmid
15:00 Stephen Farrand (Urbana)
Ti plasmid conjugal donors: Turning them on, turning them off
15:30 Coffee Break
16:00 Laura Frost (Edmonton)
Repression and epidemic spread: Two levels of traJ regulation in the F plasmid
16:30 Fernando de la Cruz (Santander)
Bacterial conjugation: A two-step mechanism for DNA transport
17:00 Trevor Lawley (Edmonton)
Bacterial conjugative transfer: Visualization of successful mating pairs and plasmid establishment in live Escherichia coli
17:30- Gunther Koraimann (Graz)
17:50 Interaction of the relaxosomal protein TraMR1 with the inner membrane protein TraDR1: Coupling the DNA substrate to the transporter
19:00 Dinner
20:00 – 23:00 Poster Session I (Replication; Partition; Stability)
Tuesday June 25
07:30 Breakfast at the Union
TRANSFER II (Chairperson: Diane Taylor, Edmonton)
08:30 Keynote Address: Richard Meyer (Austin)
Some new connections between replication and conjugal DNA transfer
09:10 Steven Matson (Chapel Hill)
The multiple roles of TraI in conjugative transfer of F plasmid
09:40 Joel Schildbach (Baltimore)
Mapping the active site of the F factor TraI relaxase activity
10:10 Coffee Break
10:40 Beth Traxler (Seattle)
Analysis of protein-protein interactions between the F plasmid conjugal DNA transfer proteins TraD, TraM, and TraI
11:00 Manuel Espinosa (Madrid)
Features of the pMV158-encoded protein MobM and the plasmid origin of transfer, oriT
11:30 Jamie Caryl (Leeds)
Initial events in small staphylococcal plasmid transfer
11:50 Christopher D. Thomas (Leeds)
Dimerization of the RepD initiator protein is a specific and stage-regulated process
12:10 Dominique Galli (Indianapolis)
A DNA invertase spoils conjugation for pVT745
12:30 Lunch
TRANSFER III (Chairperson: Laura Frost, Edmonton)
14:00 Don Clewell (Ann Arbor)
Enterococcus faecalis sex pheromone systems: Transfer origins of pAD1 and pAM373 and genetic analyses of the corresponding pheromones
14:30 Gary Dunny (Minneapolis)
Molecular and genetic dissection of the mechanism of negative control of pheromone-inducible conjugation in the Enterococcus faecalis pCF10 system
14:50 Keith Weaver (Vermillion)
Pursuing the target of the pAD1 par post-segregational killing system
15:10 Coffee Break
15:40 Elisabeth Grohmann (Berlin)
Conjugative transfer of broad-host-range plasmids in Gram-positive bacteria
PLASMIDS and BIOFILMS (Chairperson: Don Clewell)
16:00 Jean-Marc Ghigo (Paris)
Natural conjugative plasmids induce bacterial biofilm development
16:30- Ellen Zechner (Graz)
17:00 Escherichia coli biofilm architecture induced by derepressed IncF plasmids
19:00 Dinner
20:00 – 23:00 Poster Session II (Transfer)
Wednesday June 26
07:30 Breakfast at the Union
PLASMID EVOLUTION AND DIVERSITY (Chairperson: Patricia Sobecky, Atlanta)
08:30 Keynote Address: A. Mark Osborn (Colchester)
(Conjugative) genomic islands as the fifth columnists of bacterial adaptation: Evolutionary lessons from the sequence analysis of R391
09:10 Chris M. Thomas (Birmingham)
Cooperative interactions in the regulation of replication, maintenance and transfer of IncP-1 plasmid
09:40 Douglas Rawlings (Matieland)
Interaction between two related IncQ-like plasmids isolated from bacteria that grow in the same environment
10:10 Coffee Break
10:40 David Romero (Cuernavaca)
Gene conversion leads to concerted evolution between members of a plasmidic multigene family in Rhizobium
11:10 Darja Zgur-Bertok (Ljubljana)
Colicin K synthesis is posttranscriptionally regulated by the stress alarmone ppGpp and is expressed in up to 3 % of the colicinogenic population
11:30 Patricia Vary (DeKalb)
Comparison of sequences of five homologous theta replicons from B. megaterium QM B1551 and progress in complete sequencing of the seven plasmid array
11:50 Ichizo Kobayashi (Tokyo)
Restriction modification systems as selfish mobile genetic elements maintaining and rearranging the genome
12:10 Picnic Lunch (Barbeque) and Free Afternoon (informal activities)
19:00 Dinner
20:00 – 23:00 Poster Session III (Evolution/Diversity; Ecology, Virulence/Antibiotic Resistance, Pathogenicity Islands)
Thursday June 27
07:30 Breakfast at the Union
PLASMID ECOLOGY (Chairperson: Douglas Rawlings, Matieland)
08:30 Keynote Address: Patricia Sobecky (Atlanta)
Marine plasmids: Insights from diversity studies and sequencing
09:10 Eva Top (Moscow, Idaho)
IncP-1beta plasmids and chloaromatic degrading beta-proteobacteria, from alpha to omega
09:40 Sarah Turner (Oxford)
Determining the ecological mechanisms of plasmid adaptation to the niche in plant associated pseudomonad populations
10:10 Coffee Break
VIRULENCE/ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE PLASMIDS (Chairperson: Richard Novick)
10:40 Keynote Address: Jorge Crosa (Portland)
The pJM1 plasmid encodes iron transport and regulatory genes that are essential in microbial pathogenesis
11:20 Julian Rood (Clayton)
Functional analysis of the Tn4451/4453 family of clostridial mobilisable transposons
11:50 Malabi Venkatesan (Silver Spring)
The virulence plasmid sequence of Shigella flexneri
12:20 Manuela Di Lorenzo (Portland)
Novel domain organization of AngM, a nonribosomal peptide synthetase essential for siderophore biosynthesis in Vibrio anguillarum
12:40 Lunch
PATHOGENICITY ISLANDS/GENE TRANSFER ELEMENTS (Chairperson: Dhruba Chattoraj)
14:00 Keynote Address: Richard Novick (New York)
Mobile genetic elements encoding toxinosis-causing bacterial toxins: the superantigen-encoding pathogenicity islands of S. aureus
14:40 Graham Hatfull (Pittsburgh)
Comparative bacteriophage genomics
15:10 Jeffrey Lawrence (Pittsburgh)
Constraints on lateral gene transfer in prokaryotes
15:40 John Beaber (Boston)
Environmental and genetic control of the SXT, a conjugative antibiotic resistance gene transfer element from Vibrio cholerae
16:00 Coffee Break
PLASMID AS TOOLS (Chairperson: David Romero, Cuernavaca)
16:30 Joseph Sturino (Raleigh)
Antisense RNA based bacteriophage defense strategies
17:00 Jadwiga Wild (Madison)
The copy-control expression vectors (pBAC/oriV/TrfA) with the tightly controlled ara and rha promoters
17:20- Richard Fekete (Bethesda)
17:40 The role of IHF in P1 plasmid replication
19:30 – 23:00 Banquet
Friday June 28
07:30 Breakfast at the Union
RAPPORTEURS (Chair: Clarence Kado, Davis)
09:00 Anne Summers (Athens, Georgia)
Let's sequence the floating genome!
09:30 Tatiana Tatusova (NCBI, NLM, NIH)
10:00 Society for Plasmid Biology
10:30 Christopher M. Thomas (Birmingham)
SUMMARY AND HIGHLIGHTS
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Departure
Social Program
There will be ample opportunities during the Symposium for informal interactions in a relaxed setting. On Sunday June 23rd, participants will have a choice of either going to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game or a trip to "Fallingwater", a Frank Lloyd Wright house located 60 miles from the city. We are also developing plans for other social activities. If you have any special requests or questions about travel around Pittsburgh, please feel free to contact the organizers by e-mail.