Fellows & Affiliates

Faculty members located in academic departments/centers can be formally associated with the IGBB in two different ways:

1. IGBB Fellows

Through its Fellows Program, the IGBB rewards those faculty who have worked within the IGBB to build a strong, vibrant molecular biosciences/computational biology research community at MS State. IGBB Fellows receive not only formal recognition for their accomplishments, but they are given a voice in many aspects of IGBB operation including, but not limited to, input on purchases, new hires, and overall research direction. The IGBB Fellows literally serve as the Director's Advisory Committee. To be an IGBB Fellow, a faculty member from an academic department must (1) regularly submit proposals through the IGBB, (2) have had at least one funded external grant (with overhead) administered through the IGBB, (3) have a record of high-impact scientific productivity, and (4) have a national/international reputation in his/her field. IGBB Fellows have full "internal user" access to the HPC² supercomputers and receive HPC² computer, technical, and administrative support.

2. IGBB Faculty Affiliates

An IGBB Faculty Affiliate is any faculty member in an MS State academic department who (1) conducts research in the molecular biosciences and/or computational biology and (2) collaborates in some manner with IGBB faculty/staff. Like IGBB Fellows, IGBB Faculty Affiliates are encouraged to submit proposals through the IGBB, but are not obligated to do so. IGBB Faculty Affiliates generally do not have HPC² supercomputer access unless they are working on an IGBB research project. Faculty Affiliates can request access to the HPC² supercomputers if they are interested in generating data/results for an eventual proposal submission through the IGBB. Any IGBB Faculty Affiliate that submits and receives an external grant (with overhead) through the IGBB will be eligible for the IGBB Fellows Program.

Comparative genome-wide analysis reveals that Burkholderia contaminans MS14 possesses multiple antimicrobial biosynthesis genes but not major genetic loci required for pathogenesis

High Impact Research

IGBB Authors:
Kurt C. Showmaker, Daniel G. Peterson, Shien Lu

PUBLICATION YEAR: 2016
IMPACT FACTOR: 2.213
TIMES CITED (as of August 10, 2017): 6
CITATION PERCENTILE: 92

Deng P, Wang X, Baird SM, Showmaker KC, Smith L, Peterson DG, Lu S (2016) Comparative genome-wide analysis reveals that Burkholderia contaminans MS14 possesses multiple antimicrobial biosynthesis genes but not major genetic loci required for pathogenesis. MicrobiologyOpen 5(3): 353-369.

DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.333
EID: 2-s2.0-84974678282
PMID: 26769582

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ABSTRACT
Burkholderia contaminans MS14 shows significant antimicrobial activities against plant and animal pathogenic fungi and bacteria. The antifungal agent occidiofungin produced by MS14 has great potential for development of biopesticides and pharmaceutical drugs. However, the use of Burkholderia species as biocontrol agent in agriculture is restricted due to the difficulties in distinguishing between plant growth-promoting bacteria and the pathogenic bacteria. The complete MS14 genome was sequenced and analyzed to find what beneficial and virulence-related genes it harbors. The phylogenetic relatedness of B. contaminans MS14 and other 17 Burkholderia species was also analyzed. To research MS14's potential virulence, the gene regions related to the antibiotic production, antibiotic resistance, and virulence were compared between MS14 and other Burkholderia genomes. The genome of B. contaminans MS14 was sequenced and annotated. The genomic analyses reveal the presence of multiple gene sets for antimicrobial biosynthesis, which contribute to its antimicrobial activities. BLAST results indicate that the MS14 genome harbors a large number of unique regions. MS14 is closely related to another plant growth-promoting Burkholderia strain B. lata 383 according to the average nucleotide identity data. Moreover, according to the phylogenetic analysis, plant growth-promoting species isolated from soils and mammalian pathogenic species are clustered together, respectively. MS14 has multiple antimicrobial activity-related genes identified from the genome, but it lacks key virulence-related gene loci found in the pathogenic strains. Additionally, plant growth-promoting Burkholderia species have one or more antimicrobial biosynthesis genes in their genomes as compared with nonplant growth-promoting soil-isolated Burkholderia species. On the other hand, pathogenic species harbor multiple virulence-associated gene loci that are not present in nonpathogenic Burkholderia species. The MS14 genome as well as Burkholderia species genome show considerable diversity. Multiple antimicrobial agent biosynthesis genes were identified in the genome of plant growth-promoting species of Burkholderia. In addition, by comparing to nonpathogenic Burkholderia species, pathogenic Burkholderia species have more characterized homologs of the gene loci known to contribute to pathogenicity and virulence to plant and animals

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