CHARACTERIZING THE REGULATORY INTERACTIONS OF SMALL RNAS CJNC110 AND CJNC140 IN THE PATHOBIOLOGY OF CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI IA3902

Campylobacter jejuni sheep abortion (SA) clone, is currently responsible for the majority of sheep abortions caused by Campylobacter sp. within the United States. Additionally, this hypervirulent strain of C. jejuni has also been identified in human disease outbreaks. Despite the significance of this pathogen, there is a fundamental knowledge gap related to contributing factors of C. jejuni SA clone virulence. Our primary goal for this project is to improve understanding of small RNAs (CJNC110 and CJNC140) gene-product regulation, which is essential for understanding the pathobiology of the C. jejuni SA clone. As a pre-doctoral training grant, pursuit of this primary goal will also enable attainment of additional goals including mentoring, networking, scientific training, and the completion of the Project Director's PhD program. In conjunction, these goals align with the long-term career goal of the PD to become a highly trained leader in agricultural research as a tenure-track professor at a research-focused institution. The following specific research objectives will be pursued to accomplish our goals:1. Objective #1: Elucidate the post-transcriptional regulatory pathways of CJNC110 and CJNC140 by investigating molecular level RNA-RNA interactions. 2. Objective #2: Characterize the translational regulatory pathways of CJNC110 and CJNC140 by investigating protein translation and sRNA-protein interactions.