Farah Shamma, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering
PROFILE
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
NA
RESEARCH INTEREST
Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology
JOURNAL PAPER
Farah Shamma, E. Hesper Rego, Cara C. Boutte, Mycobacterial serine/threonine phosphatase PstP is phosphoregulated and localized to mediate control of cell wall metabolism, Molecular Microbiology, 118, pp.47-60, 2022. doi: DOI: 10.1111/mmi.14951Abstract: The mycobacterial cell wall is profoundly regulated in response to environmental stresses, and this regulation contributes to antibiotic tolerance. The reversible phosphorylation of different cell wall regulatory proteins is a major mechanism of cell wall regulation. Eleven serine/threonine protein kinases phosphorylate many critical cell wall-related proteins in mycobacteria. PstP is the sole serine/ threonine phosphatase, but few proteins have been verified as PstP substrates. PstP is itself phosphorylated, but the role of its phos- phorylation in regulating its activity has been unclear. In this study, we aim to discover novel substrates of PstP in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). We show in vitro that PstP dephosphorylates two regulators of peptidoglycan in Mtb, FhaA, and Wag31. We also show that a phosphomimetic mutation of T137 on PstP negatively regulates its catalytic activity against the cell wall regulators FhaA, Wag31, CwlM, PknB, and PknA, and that the corresponding mutation in Mycobacterium smegmatis causes misregulation of pepti- doglycan in vivo. We show that PstP is localized to the septum, which likely restricts its access to certain substrates. These findings on the regulation of PstP provide insight into the control of cell wall metabolism in mycobacteria.
Abstract: Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its relatives, like many bacteria, have dynamic cell walls that respond to environmental stresses. Modulation of cell wall metabolism in stress is thought to be responsible for decreased permeability and increased tolerance to antibiotics. The signaling systems that control cell wall meta- bolism under stress, however, are poorly understood. Here, we examine the cell wall regulatory function of a key cell wall regulator, the serine/threonine phosphatase PstP, in the model organism Mycobacterium smegmatis. We show that the peptido- glycan regulator CwlM is a substrate of PstP. We find that a phosphomimetic muta- tion, pstP T171E, slows growth, misregulates both mycolic acid and peptidoglycan metabolism in different conditions, and interferes with antibiotic tolerance. These data suggest that phosphorylation on PstP affects its activity against various sub- strates and is important in the transition between growth and stasis.
Yasin MA, Islam S, Amin RA, Shamma F, Mahmud SA, Adnan N, Dissemination of MDR bacteria from poultry litters and veterinary waste in Savar, Bangladesh, Jahanginagar University J. Biol. Sci, 2, 2, pp.93-101, December, 2013.Shamma F, Ahsan N, Islam MJ, Ahsan CR, Environmental Factors Regulate the hlyE Gene Expression in Both S. typhi and E. coli in a Similar Way to Display Haemolytic Activity, Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull, 42, pp.33-38, April 2016.
Abstract: Haemolysin (HlyE) is an essential virulence factor of Salmonella, Escherichia coli and other enteric bacteria. Although, a substantial degree of haemolytic activity is not seen under normal culture conditions in these organisms, however, the non-haemolytic E. coli K-12 showed significant haemolytic activity under stress conditions. To confirm this phenomenon in other enteric bacteria, in this study, the production of haemolysin in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi under stress conditions, like oxygen and glucose starvations in vitro was investigated during March-December 2015. For this, S. typhi was cultured under oxygen or glucose starvation condition separately and this organism showed high haemolytic activity. The activity was found to be much higher when both the conditions were applied together. Also, the role of the transcription factor SlyA of S. typhi was investigated on induction of haemolytic activity. When E. coli K-12 was transformed with plasmid containing the gene of SlyA, the recombinant bacteria without any starvation condition, also showed similar haemolytic activity that was exhibited by S. typhi grown under oxygen and glucose starvation conditions. All these findings suggest that both environmental factors like oxygen or glucose starvation and overexpression of the transcription factor SlyA have important role in inducing hlyE gene expression in S. typhi.
Abstract: The main objective of this work was to isolate arsenic resistant bacteria from contaminated soil, followed by screening for their ability to adsorb arsenic. Six bacterial isolates (S1 to S6) were obtained from arsenic contaminated soil samples and among these, five (S1, S2, S3, S5 and S6) were characterized as bacillus and the rest one (S4) was cocci depending on shape. All the isolates except S6 produced extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in the culture medium and displayed arsenic adsorbing activities demonstrated by adsorption of around 90% from initial concentration of 1 mg/L sodium arsenite. To clarify the role of EPS, we killed the bacteria that produced EPS and used these killed bacteria to see whether they could still adsorb arsenic or not. We found that they could adsorb arsenic similarly like that of EPS produced live bacterial isolates. From the observation it is concluded that these isolates showed potentiality to adsorb arsenic and hence might be used for bioremediation of arsenic.
AWARD
Yasin MA, Islam S, Amin RA, Shamma F, Mahmud SA, Adnan N, Dissemination of MDR bacteria from poultry litters and veterinary waste in Savar, Bangladesh, Jahanginagar University J. Biol. Sci, 2, 2, pp.93-101, December, 2013.Teaching
| Course Code | Course Title | Semester/Year |
|---|---|---|
| BGE 315 | Bioinformatics Practical (2 credit hours) | |
| BGE 310 | Bioinformatics (3 credit hours) | |
| BGE 209 | Food Biotechnology (2 credit hours) | |
| BGE 201 | Genetics (3 credit hours) | |
| BGE 513 | Omics Practical (2 credit hours) | |
| BGE 503 | Enzyme Technology (4 credit hours) |
Contact
Farah Shamma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering
Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.
Email: farah.shamma@juniv.edu
, farah.shamma@yahoo.com, farah.shamma@bgeju.edu.bd
