Tony Romeo

About

Tony Romeo is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida, affiliated with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1986 and completed postdoctoral studies at Michigan State University. His research focuses on the regulatory mechanisms by which microbes sense environmental changes and respond through modifications in behavior and metabolism. Of particular interest are the global regulatory systems that coordinate gene expression across the bacterial genome. His studies of the Csr system have revealed a novel type of global regulatory system based on an mRNA binding protein, CsrA, and noncoding regulatory RNAs that sequester and antagonize CsrA. His work investigates the molecular mechanisms, regulatory circuits, and roles of Csr in bacterial virulence, biofilm formation, motility, metabolism, and quorum sensing.

Research topics

• Biology
• Cell biology
• Genetics
• Chemistry
• Microbiology
• Biochemistry
• Molecular biology

Selected publications

• Global role of the bacterial post-transcriptional regulator CsrA revealed by integrated transcriptomics

  Nature Communications · 2017-11-13 · 183 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  CsrA is a post-transcriptional regulatory protein that is widely distributed among bacteria. This protein influences bacterial lifestyle decisions by binding to the 5' untranslated and/or early coding regions of mRNA targets, causing changes in translation initiation, RNA stability, and/or transcription elongation. Here, we assess the contribution of CsrA to gene expression in Escherichia coli on a global scale. UV crosslinking immunoprecipitation and sequencing (CLIP-seq) identify RNAs that int…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Global Regulation by CsrA and Its RNA Antagonists

  Microbiology Spectrum · 2018-03-24 · 168 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT The sequence-specific RNA binding protein CsrA is employed by diverse bacteria in the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. Its binding interactions with RNA have been documented at atomic resolution and shown to alter RNA secondary structure, RNA stability, translation, and/or Rho-mediated transcription termination through a growing number of molecular mechanisms. In Gammaproteobacteria , small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) that contain multiple CsrA binding sites compete with m…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Diverse Mechanisms and Circuitry for Global Regulation by the RNA-Binding Protein CsrA

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2020 · 85 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  , which contain multiple high affinity CsrA binding sites that compete with those of mRNA targets. Transcription of CsrB/C is induced by certain nutrient limitations, cellular stresses, and metabolites, while these RNAs are targeted for degradation by the presence of a preferred carbon source. Consistent with these findings, CsrA tends to activate pathways and processes that are associated with robust growth and repress stationary phase metabolism and stress responses. Regulatory loops between C…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Posttranscription Initiation Control of Gene Expression Mediated by Bacterial RNA-Binding Proteins

  Annual Review of Microbiology · 2019-05-18 · 68 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  RNA-binding proteins play vital roles in regulating gene expression and cellular physiology in all organisms. Bacterial RNA-binding proteins can regulate transcription termination via attenuation or antitermination mechanisms, while others can repress or activate translation initiation by affecting ribosome binding. The RNA targets for these proteins include short repeated sequences, longer single-stranded sequences, RNA secondary or tertiary structure, and a combination of these features. The a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Antagonistic control of the turnover pathway for the global regulatory sRNA CsrB by the CsrA and CsrD proteins

  Nucleic Acids Research · 2016-05-27 · 63 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The widely conserved protein CsrA (carbon storage regulator A) globally regulates bacterial gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. In many species, CsrA activity is governed by untranslated sRNAs, CsrB and CsrC in Escherichia coli, which bind to multiple CsrA dimers, sequestering them from lower affinity mRNA targets. Both the synthesis and turnover of CsrB/C are regulated. Their turnover requires the housekeeping endonuclease RNase E and is activated by the presence of a preferred c…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01GM066794

  NIH · $2.5M · 2013

• Mechanism of CsrA-Mediated Global Control

  NIH · $7.9M · 1999–2023

• Coordination of metabolism and virulence during infection

  NIH · $2.0M · 2011–2017

Frequent coauthors

• Paul Babitzke

  Pennsylvania State University

  56 shared

• Gordon G. Wallace

  ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science

  34 shared

• Kazushi Suzuki

  Niigata University

  19 shared

• Janet Moore

  RTI International

  18 shared

• Helen Yakhnin

  Pennsylvania State University

  17 shared

• Christopher A. Vakulskas

  Integrated DNA Technologies (United States)

  16 shared

• Archana Pannuri

  University of Florida

  16 shared

• M Y Liu

  National Cheng Kung University

  16 shared

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