Cari Vanderpool

About

Dr. Cari Vanderpool is an adjunct professor of microbiology at the University of Minnesota and is affiliated with the Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences School of Molecular & Cellular Biology. Her research investigates RNA-mediated mechanisms of genetic regulation in bacteria, focusing on how bacteria adjust gene expression in response to environmental stresses to ensure survival and competitiveness. Her lab studies small RNAs (sRNAs), non-coding RNA molecules involved in regulating stress responses through mechanisms such as base pairing with target mRNAs to influence their stability or translation. Her work includes the global discovery and characterization of small RNA regulatory networks, with particular emphasis on sRNA functions in bacterial physiology, metabolism, and structure. Notable contributions involve developing tools like SPOT for sRNA target prediction, elucidating the regulation of carbohydrate transport and metabolism via sRNAs such as SgrS, and exploring sRNA roles in membrane structure and function through lipid modifications regulated by sRNAs like RydC, ArrS, and CpxQ. Additionally, her research extends to prophage-encoded regulators, such as DicF and DicB, which influence bacterial cell division and metabolism, and to the regulation of gut microbes, especially within the phylum Bacteroidetes. Her work aims to deepen understanding of bacterial gene regulation mechanisms, with implications for microbial physiology and host interactions.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Cell biology
• Computational biology
• Microbiology
• Biochemistry

Selected publications

• Translation inhibition from a distance: The small RNA SgrS silences a ribosomal protein S1‐dependent enhancer

  Molecular Microbiology · 2020 · 29 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Many bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) efficiently inhibit translation of target mRNAs by forming a duplex that sequesters the Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence or start codon and prevents formation of the translation initiation complex. There are a growing number of examples of sRNA-mRNA binding interactions distant from the SD region, but how these mediate translational regulation remains unclear. Our previous work in Escherichia coli and Salmonella identified a mechanism of translational repression of…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Kinetic modeling reveals additional regulation at co-transcriptional level by post-transcriptional sRNA regulators

  Cell Reports · 2021 · 25 citations

  Small RNAs (sRNAs) are important gene regulators in bacteria. Many sRNAs act post-transcriptionally by affecting translation and degradation of the target mRNAs upon base-pairing interactions. Here we present a general approach combining imaging and mathematical modeling to determine kinetic parameters at different levels of sRNA-mediated gene regulation that contribute to overall regulation efficacy. Our data reveal that certain sRNAs previously characterized as post-transcriptional regulators…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Novel Family of RNA-Binding Proteins Regulate Polysaccharide Metabolism in <i>Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron</i>

  Journal of Bacteriology · 2021 · 21 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  to live successfully in the gut, and thus the new regulators we have identified may be important for life in the host.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Small RNAs Activate Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 1 by Modulating mRNA Stability through the <i>hilD</i> mRNA 3′ Untranslated Region

  Journal of Bacteriology · 2022-12-06 · 19 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a prominent foodborne pathogen, infecting millions of people a year. To express virulence genes at the correct time and place in the host, Salmonella uses a complex regulatory network that senses environmental conditions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mechanisms of Regulation of Cryptic Prophage-Encoded Gene Products in Escherichia coli

  Journal of Bacteriology · 2023-07-13 · 14 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Cryptic or defective prophages have lost genes necessary to excise from the bacterial chromosome and produce phage progeny. In recent years, studies have found that cryptic prophage gene products influence diverse aspects of bacterial host cell physiology. However, to obtain a complete understanding of the relationship between cryptic prophages and the host bacterium, identification of the environmental, host, or prophage-encoded factors that induce the expression of cryptic prophage genes is cr…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Molecular Determinants of Regulatory Hierarchy for Bacterial Small RNAs

  NIH · $2.4M · 2010–2022

• NIH Grant R01GM120182

  NIH · $1.2M · 2021

• Quantitative Imaging and Modeling of Regulation by Bacterial Small RNA

  NIH · $1.1M · 2015–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Taekjip Ha

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  19 shared

• Muhammad S. Azam

  University of Missouri

  18 shared

• Susan Gottesman

  Center for Cancer Research

  14 shared

• Anustup Poddar

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  13 shared

• Maksym Bobrovskyy

  University of Chicago

  13 shared

• Divya Balasubramanian

  Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science & Technology

  11 shared

• Xiangqian Ma

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  10 shared

• Jingyi Fei

  University of Chicago

  10 shared

Labs

• Vanderpool LabPI

Awards & honors

• 2018 Charles G Miller Professorial Scholar
• 2013 Helen Corley Petit Scholar, College of Liberal Arts and…

Similar researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• James A. Imlayh-74
• William W. Metcalfh-74
• Gary J. Olsenh-58