j-cronan@life.illinois.edu
B103 CLSL
Office: (217) 333-7919
Lab: (217) 244-3466
Mail to:
Microbiology
B103 CLSL
601 S Goodwin Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
John E Cronan
Professor and Head of Microbiology
Professor of Biochemistry
Microbiology Alumni Professor
Education
B.A. (Biology), California State University, 1965
Ph.D. (Molecular Biology), University of California, Irvine, 1968
Postdoctoral (Biochemistry), Washington University School of Medicine, 1968-1970
Teaching Interests
Genetic approaches to regulation of lipid metabolism; metabolic function of protein-lipid interactions; lipoic acid synthesis and attachment
My laboratory works in two main areas-regulation of lipid metabolism and protein-lipid interaction. In both areas, the organism studied is Escherichia coli due to its sophisticated genetics and simple lipid composition. We have studied mechanisms that regulate the composition of the membrane phospholipids of E. coli and are currently concerned how this organism regulates lipid synthesis such that it is neither "fat nor lean." Our work on protein-lipid interactions is centered about systems that allow a genetic analysis of these interactions. These are: (1) Vibrio cholerae cis-traens isomerase which changes the configuration of the fatty acid chains of membrane phospholipids, and (2) E. coli cyclopropane fatty acid synthesis, a soluble enzyme where substrate is found in nonpolar regions of lipid bilayers. Our approaches to the problem studies are genetics, molecular cloning, in vitro synthesis of genes, protein purification, and enzymology. We have also begun to study these processes in the gram positive bacterium, Lactococcus lactis.
A new interest is the use of the rare modifications of proteins by addition of biotin or lipoic acid to study problems of folding, export, and purification. We are also very interested in how lipoic acid and biotin are synthesized and attached to the relevant proteins and have isolated a number of new genes and enzymes involved in these processes.
Representative Publications
Massengo-Tiassé, R. P. and J. E. Cronan. 2008. Vibrio cholerae FabV Defines a New Class of Enoyl Acyl-Carrier-Protein Reductase. J. Biol. Chem. 283: 1308 –1313 [Epub ahead of print, Nov 21, 2007]
De Lay, N. R and J. E. Cronan. 2008. Genetic Interaction Between the Escherichia coli AcpT Phosphopantetheinyl Transferase and the YejM Inner Membrane Protein. Genetics 178: 1327–1337.
Morgan-Kiss, R. and J. E. Cronan. 2008. The Lactococcus lactis FabF Fatty Acid Synthetic Enzyme Can Functionally Replace both the FabB and FabF proteins of Escherichia coli and the FabH protein of Lactococcus lactis. Archiv. Microbiol 190:427-437.
Yang, L., V. D. Gordon, D. R. Trinkle, N. Schmidt, M. A. Davis, C. DeVries, A. Som, J. E. Cronan, Jr., G. N. Tew, and G. C. L. Wong. 2008. Mechanism of a Prototypical Synthetic Membrane-Active Antimicrobial: Efficient Hole-Punching Via Interaction With Negative Intrinsic Curvature Lipids. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105:20595-20600
Thomas, J. , D. J. Rigden, and J. E. Cronan. 2007. The Acyl Carrier Protein Phosphodiesterase (AcpH) of Escherichia coli is a Non-Canonical Member of the HD Phosphatase/Phosphodiesterase Family. Biochemistry 46:129-136.
De Lay, N. R and J. E. Cronan. 2007. In Vivo Functional Analyses of the Type II Acyl Carrier Proteins of Fatty Acid Biosynthesis. J. Biol. Chem. 282: 20319-20328.
Abdel-Hamid, A. M. and J. E. Cronan. 2007. In Vivo Resolution of Conflicting In Vitro Results: Synthesis of Biotin From Dethiobiotin Does Not Require Pyridoxal Phosphate. Chem. Biol. 14:1215-1220.
Ma, Q., X. Zhao, A. Nasser Eddine, A. Geerlof, X. Li, J. E. Cronan, S. Kaufmann, and M. Wilmanns. 2006. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis LipB Enzyme Functions as a Cysteine/Lysine Dyad Acyltransferase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 103:8662-8667.
De Lay, N. R. and J. E. Cronan. 2006. A Genome Rearrangement has Orphaned The Escherchia coli K-12 AcpT Phosphopantetheinyl Transferase From its Cognate Escherchia coli O157:H7 Substrates. Mol. Microbiol. 61:232-242.
Jiang, Y., C. H. Chan, and J. E. Cronan. 2006. The Soluble Acyl-Acyl Carrier Protein Synthetase of Vibrio harveyi B392 is a Member of the Medium Chain Acyl-CoA Synthetase Family. Biochemistry 45:10008-10019.
De Lay, N. R. and J. E. Cronan. 2006. Gene-Specific Random Mutagenesis of Escherichia coli In Vivo: Isolation of Temperature-Sensitive Mutations in the Acyl Carrier Protein of Fatty Acid Synthesis. J. Bacteriol. 188:287-296.
Iram, S. H. and J. E. Cronan. 2006. The ß-Oxidation Systems of Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica are not Functionally Equivalent. J. Bacteriol. 188:599-608.