Madison R. Spratt

Perturbing H-NS function reveals roles in restricting virulence heterogeneity and pathogen adaptation

This study investigates the role of H-NS repression in virulence gene expression and pathogen adaptation by using a Salmonella strain with reduced H-NS DNA-binding affinity.

Temporal tuning of switch-like virulence expression resolves environmental uncertainty through phenotypic heterogeneity

The paper shows that Salmonella Typhimurium uses switch-like SPI-2 gene expression to probabilistically adapt to uncertain intracellular environments through phenotypic heterogeneity.

Regulator-derived growth and fitness costs of Salmonella SPI-2 expression are environment specific and T3SS independent

This study shows that expressing the SPI-2 master regulator ssrB imposes environment-specific growth and fitness costs in Salmonella, independent of the T3SS.