Mobile Genetic Elements | Ramsay Lab

The Ramsay lab was established in 2013 and is based in the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute and School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, Western Australia.

Mobile genetic elements such as plasmids, bacteriophage and chromosomally-integrating elements are ubiquitous in bacteria and drive evolution through horizontal gene transfer.
We investigate the gene regulation, evolution and molecular biology of bacterial mobile genetic elements - along with a plethora of other interesting things we get our hands on!

The Ramsay lab currently studies mobile genetic elements active in both human pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus) and beneficial nitrogen-fixing plant-associated rhizobia (Mesorhizobium spp).

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Check out the Ramsay Lab's (in colab with Bond lab) first Xray crystal structure - the helical polymer forming excisionase - RdfS. Made the cover of Acta D!

Crystallographic and X-ray scattering study of RdfS, a recombination directionality factor from an integrative and conjugative element
Callum J Verdonk, Andrew C Marshall, Joshua P Ramsay, Charles S Bond
Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol. 2022 Oct 1;78(Pt 10):1210-1220

An epigenetic switch activates bacterial quorum sensing and horizontal transfer of an integrative and conjugative element

Joshua P. Ramsay, Tahlia R. Bastholm, Callum J. Verdonk, Dinah D. Tambalo, John T. Sullivan, Liam K. Harold, Beatrice A. Panganiban, Elena Colombi, Benjamin J. Perry, William Jowsey, Calum Morris, Michael F. Hynes, Charles S. Bond, Andrew D.S. Cameron, Christopher K. Yost and Clive W. Ronson

Nucleic Acids Research 2021