Reinhold Brückner

Biography

1986 Dr. rer. nat. (PhD), Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Heidelberg (Regulation of inducible chloramphenicol resistance in Bacillus subtilis) 1986-1989 Post-doctoral fellow with Roy Doi at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, Davis, USA (Secreted proteases of Bacillus subtilis) 1989-1999 Scientific Assistant, Department of Microbial Genetics, University of Tübingen (Regulation of carbohydrate utilization and carbon catabolite repression in Staphylococcus xylosus) 1998 Habilitation in Microbiology since 2000 Research Associate, Group of Microbiology, University of Kaiserslautern 2012 Venia legendi, Faculty of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern

Research Interest

My major research interest is the analysis of complex regulatory networks in AT-rich Gram-positive bacteria. Main focus of the ongoing research is the elucidation of the physiological consequences of gene regulation mediated by the two-component regulatory system CiaRH in Streptococcus pneumoniae. The cellular processes that are influenced by the system include penicillin resistance, competence for uptake of DNA, integrity of the cell wall, and carbohydrate utilization. The CiaRH system controls the expression of 25 genes. Remarkably, five of them specify small non-coding RNAs. These small RNAs are themselves regulators acting post-transcriptionally. They control among others the gene comC encoding a competence pheromone required to initiate competence ddevelopment. To identify further regulated targets of these RNAs and their role in pneumococcal physiology is currently one of the major goals.