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Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that can infect both plants and humans and cause antibiotic-resistant, hospital-acquired infections. It produces a multitude of small molecules that exhibit unusual structures and functions, including the nonproteinogenic amino acid L-2-amino-4-methoxy-trans-3-butenoic acid (AMB). AMB exerts antimicrobial properties and triggers germination-arrest in plant seeds. I will discuss our work on elucidating the biosynthetic pathway that transforms glutamate to AMB via the action of two nonribosomal peptide synthetases, which are multidomain protein machineries used by microbes to make numerous natural products. This type of machinery is also used by P. Aeruginosa to make an azetidine-containing small molecule, azabicyclene.

Bo joined the faculty of UNC Chemistry in 2013 and is currently Professor of Chemistry. Her group integrates chemistry and genomics to identify bacterial small molecules and unravels the mechanisms by which these molecules inhibit or enable bacterial infections. She has received a National Institutes of Health Pathway to Independence Award, a Rita Allen Foundation Scholars Award, a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award .

Sponsored by: Chemistry Department Seminar Series

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