Oram, Kathryn; Griffiths, Alayna (Utah Valley University)
Faculty Advisor: Gazdik-Stofer, Michaela (Utah Valley University, Biology)
The World Health Organization currently estimates that 4,384 individuals die per day due to complications of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and affects 1.8 million people worldwide as it infects individuals through air droplets from a cough or sneeze. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is known to be a major component in TB because it acts as a macrophage inhibitor that is responsible for blocking the immune defense allowing the M. Tuberculosis to rapidly replicated within cells. The function of cAMP in TB patients is known but the focal point of our research is why and how the increased levels of cAMP effects patients that are infected with TB. Our team uses mutated M. Smegmatis bacteria due to the comparable levels of cAMP secretion and high pathogenicity of M. Tuberculosis. We are currently screening the cAMP secretion in 1,000 mutated M. Smegmatis colonies to identify secretion differences from the wild-type M. Smegmatis. The mutants samples with high variation from the wild-type will be sequenced to identify the genes and determine the proteins that are present. Finding the genes and proteins can help understand why and what causes the inflation on cAMP secretion in TB patients.