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Biography:Helen J. Wing is a Professor of Molecular Microbiology
in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She
obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham (UK),
where she used genetics to study the transcriptional control mechanisms in Escherichia coli. In her first post-doctoral
position, she worked with Prof. Stephen J.W. Busby and Prof. John R. Guest,
employing biochemical approaches to study transcription. When Helen moved to
the U.S. to take a post-doctoral position with Marcia B. Goldberg M.D. at
Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital she became fascinated
by the molecular events that control the transcription of Shigella virulence genes. She joined
the faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2005. |
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Helen
J. Wing, Ph.D.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas 4505 S. Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, NV 89154-4004 Office: Rm 307A Phone:
(702) 895 5382 Fax: (702) 895 3956 Email: helen.wing@unlv.edu |
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Research focus:
The primary focus
of my research laboratory
is virulence gene expression in Shigella
spp., causal agents of bacillary dysentery, which are a major cause of morbidity and mortality
worldwide. The large virulence plasmid of Shigella carries many
genes required to cause disease in the human host, including those required for
invasion, type III secretion and actin-based motility, a process that allows
bacteria to spread from one human cell to another. We are interested in the
environmental cues, the timing and the molecular events that trigger the
expression of virulence genes. We are particularly interested in the complex
interplay between nucleoid structuring proteins, and the transcriptional
regulators of virulence plasmid genes in Shigella, VirF
and VirB. |
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Selected publications:
Link to complete list of published work McKenna
JA, Karney MMA, Chan DK , Weatherspoon-Griffin N,
Becerra Larios B, Pilonieta
MC, Munson GP, Wing HJ. 2022. The AraC/XylS Protein MxiE and Its Coregulator IpgC Control a
Negative Feedback Loop in the Transcriptional Cascade That Regulates Type III
Secretion in Shigella flexneri. J. Bacteriol, e00137-22 Socea JN, GR Bowman GR, Wing
HJ. 2021. VirB, a key transcriptional regulator of
virulence plasmid genes in Shigella flexneri, forms DNA-binding site
dependent foci in the bacterial cytoplasm. J Bacteriol.
203 (11), e00627-20 McKenna JA and Wing HJ. 2020. The antiactivator of type III secretion, OspD1, Is
transcriptionally regulated by VirB and H-NS from Remote Sequences in Shigella flexneri. J Bacteriol 202 (10), e00072-20 Karney MMA, McKenna JA, Weatherspoon-Griffin N, Karabachev AD, Millar M, Potochek
E and Wing HJ. 2019. Investigating the
DNA-binding site for VirB, a key transcriptional regulator of Shigella
virulence genes, using an in vivo binding tool. Genes
10 (2), 149 Weatherspoon‐Griffin N,
Picker MA, Pew KL, Park HS, Ginete DR, Karney MMA, Usufzy P, Castellanos MI, Duhart JC, Harrison DJ, Socea JN, Karabachev AD, Hensley CT, Howerton AJ, Ojeda-Daulo
R, Immak JA, Wing HJ.
2018. Insights into transcriptional silencing and
anti‐silencing in Shigella flexneri: a detailed molecular
analysis of the icsP virulence locus. Mol. Micro 108 (5), 505-518 Weatherspoon-Griffin N and Wing
HJ. 2016. Characterization of SlyA in Shigella
flexneri identifies a novel role in virulence. Inf Immunity 84 (4), 1073-1082 Weatherspoon-Griffin
N, Picker MA, and Wing HJ. 2016.
The Genetic Organization and Transcriptional Regulation of Shigella Virulence Genes. In WD
Picking and WL Picking (Eds). Shigella:
Molecular and Cellular Biology. Cambridge, UK Caister
Academic Press. Basta, DW, Pew KL, Immak JA, Park HS, Picker MA, Wigley
AF, Hensley CT, Pearson JS, Hartland EL and Wing HJ. 2013. Characterization of the ospZ promoter in Shigella flexneri and its regulation
by VirB & H-NS. J. Bacteriol 195: 2562-2572. Broach
WH, Egan NR, Wing HJ, Payne SP and
Murphy ER. 2012. VirF-independent
regulation of Shigella virB transcription is mediated by the
small RNA RyhB. PLoS
ONE.7(6): e38592. Africa LA, Murphy ER, Egan NR, Wigley AF, Wing HJ.
2011. The iron-responsive Fur/RyhB regulatory
cascade modulates the Shigella outer membrane protease IcsP. Infect Immun. 79(11):4543-9. Hensley CT, Kamneva
OK, Levy KM, Labahn SK, Africa LA, Wing HJ.
2011. Two promoters and two translation start sites control the expression of
the Shigella flexneri outer membrane protease IcsP. Arch Microbiol. 193(4):263-74. Castellanos MI, Harrison DJ, Smith JM, Levy
KM, Labahn SK and Wing HJ. 2009. VirB
alleviates H-NS repression of the icsP
promoter in Shigella flexneri from sites over 1 kb upstream of the
transcription start site. J Bacteriol. 191:
4047-4050 |