My research group’s activities focus on establishing the mechanistic basis of signal perception and propagation that operates to allow the appropriate adaptive patterns of gene expression to be mounted. We study bacterial systems, of agronomic, medical and industrial relevance. We employ a range of genetic and biochemical l methodologies, often working closely with collaborators to establish the structural biology, systems biology and biophysical behaviour of the processes being investigated.

Bonato P, Alves LR, Osaki JH, Rigo LU, Pedrosa FO, Souza EM, Zhang N, Schumacher J, Buck M, Wassem R, Chubatsu LSet al., 2016, The NtrY-NtrX two-component system is involved in controlling nitrate assimilation in Herbaspirillum seropedicae strain SmR1., FEBS J Bradley RW, Buck M, Wang B, 2016, Tools and Principles for Microbial Gene Circuit Engineering, JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, Vol: 428, Pages: 862-888, ISSN: 0022-2836 Bradley RW, Buck M, Wang B, 2016, Recognizing and engineering digital-like logic gates and switches in gene regulatory networks., Curr Opin Microbiol, Vol: 33, Pages: 74-82 Engl C, Schaefer J, Kotta-Loizou I, Buck Met al., 2016, Cellular and molecular phenotypes depending upon the RNA repair system RtcAB of Escherichia coli., Nucleic Acids Res McDonald C, Jovanovic G, Wallace BA, Ces O, Buck Met al., 2016, Structure and function of PspA and Vipp1 N-terminal peptides: Insights into the membrane stress sensing and mitigation., Biochim Biophys Acta, ISSN: 0006-3002 Schaefer J, Jovanovic G, Kotta-Loizou I, Buck Met al., 2016, A data comparison between a traditional and the single-step β-galactosidase assay., Data Brief, Vol: 8, Pages: 350-352 Schaefer J, Jovanovic G, Kotta-Loizou L, Buck Met al., 2016, Single-step method for beta-galactosidase assays in Escherichia coli using a 96-well microplate reader, ANALYTICAL BIOCHEMISTRY, Vol: 503, Pages: 56-57, ISSN: 0003-2697 Zhang N, Darbari VC, Glyde R, Zhang X, Buck Met al., 2016, The bacterial enhancer-dependent RNA polymerase., Biochem J, Vol: 473, Pages: 3741-3753 Zhang N, Jovanovic G, McDonald C, Ces O, Zhang X, Buck Met al., 2016, Transcription Regulation and Membrane Stress Management in Enterobacterial Pathogens., Adv Exp Med Biol, Vol: 915, Pages: 207-230, ISSN: 0065-2598 Buck M, Engl C, Joly N, Jovanovic G, Jovanovic M, Lawton E, McDonald C, Schumacher J, Waite C, Zhang Net al., 2015, In vitro and in vivo methodologies for studying the Sigma 54-dependent transcription., Methods Mol Biol, Vol: 1276, Pages: 53-79 Jovanovic G, Mehta P, McDonald C, Buck Met al., 2015, Promoter Order Strategy and Bacterial PspF Regulon Evolution, Evolutionary Biology: Biodiversification from Genotype to Phenotype, Editors: Pontarotti, Publisher: Springer, Pages: 263-283, ISBN: 978-3-319-19932-0 Jovanovic G, Sheng X, Ale A, Feliu E, Harrington HA, Kirk P, Wiuf C, Buck M, Stumpf MPHet al., 2015, Phosphorelay of non-orthodox two component systems functions through a bi-molecular mechanism in vivo: the case of ArcB, MOLECULAR BIOSYSTEMS, Vol: 11, Pages: 1348-1359, ISSN: 1742-206X McDonald C, Jovanovic G, Ces O, Buck Met al., 2015, Membrane Stored Curvature Elastic Stress Modulates Recruitment of Maintenance Proteins PspA and Vipp1, MBIO, Vol: 6, ISSN: 2150-7511 Mehta P, Jovanovic G, Ying L, Buck Met al., 2015, Is the cellular and molecular machinery docile in the stationary phase of Escherichia coli?, BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS, Vol: 43, Pages: 168-171, ISSN: 0300-5127 Schaefer J, Engl C, Zhang N, Lawton E, Buck Met al., 2015, Genome wide interactions of wild-type and activator bypass forms of σ54., Nucleic Acids Research, Vol: 43, Pages: 7280-7291, ISSN: 1362-4962 Wang B, Barahona M, Buck M, 2015, Amplification of small molecule-inducible gene expression via tuning of intracellular receptor densities, NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH, Vol: 43, Pages: 1955-1964, ISSN: 0305-1048 Yang Y, Darbari VC, Zhang N, Lu D, Glyde R, Wang Y-P, Winkelman JT, Gourse RL, Murakami KS, Buck M, Zhang Xet al., 2015, Structures of the RNA polymerase-sigma(54) reveal new and conserved regulatory strategies, SCIENCE, Vol: 349, Pages: 882-885, ISSN: 0036-8075 Zhang N, Buck M, 2015, A perspective on the enhancer dependent bacterial RNA polymerase., Biomolecules, Vol: 5, Pages: 1012-1019 Zhang N, Schaefer J, Sharma A, Rayner L, Zhang X, Tuma R, Stockley P, Buck Met al., 2015, Mutations in RNA Polymerase Bridge Helix and Switch Regions Affect Active-Site Networks and Transcript-Assisted Hydrolysis, JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, Vol: 427, Pages: 3516-3526, ISSN: 0022-2836 Brown D, Barton G, Pan Z, Buck M, Wigneshweraraj Set al., 2014, Combinatorial stress responses: direct coupling of two major stress responses in Escherichia coli, Microbial Cell, Vol: 1, Pages: 315-317