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Currently Funded Research:
Research Interests:
We
are interested in examining oral bacteria using genetic,
genomic, post-genomic, and molecular biological
approaches. We are particularly interested in examining
Streptococcus sanguinis in the two
different environments in which it is most often
found—the mouth and infected heart valves. In the first
case, we are interested in identifying factors affecting
the fitness of this bacterium in the mouth and its
ability to serve as a beneficial member of the normal
flora by competing with oral pathogens. In the second
case, we are interested in determining how S.
sanguinis causes the serious cardiac infection
known as infective endocarditis. We have recently
identified a protein produced by S. sanguinis
that is absolutely required for infective endocarditis
causation but has no demonstrable importance in the
mouth. We are investigating this protein as a promising
target for preventing harmful infections such as
infective endocarditis without eliminating beneficial
oral colonization. These projects have been
facilitated by the sequencing of
the genome of S. sanguinis. |
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Recent
Publications:
Perform
a PubMed search Kitten, T., Munro, C. L., Zollar, N. Q., Lee, S. P., and Patel, R. D. (2012) Oral streptococcal bacteremia in hospitalized patients: taxonomic identification and clinical characterization. J Clin Microbiol. in press. Xu, P, Ge, X, Chen, L, Dou, Y, Wang, X,
Patel, J. R., Trinh, M., Evans, K., Stone, V., Kitten
T., Bonchev, D., and Buck, G. A. 2011.
Genome-wide essential gene identification in Streptococcus
sanguinis. Sci. Rep. 1: DOI: 10.1038/srep00125. Callahan, J. E., Munro C.L., and
Kitten, T. 2011. The Streptococcus
sanguinis competence regulon is not required for
infective endocarditis virulence in a rabbit model. PLoS
ONE 6:e26403. Rodriguez,
A. M., Callahan, J. E., Fawcett, P. Ge, X., Xu, P., and
Kitten, T. 2011. Physiological and molecular
characterization of genetic competence in Streptococcus
sanguinis. Mol Oral Microbiol. 26: 99-116. Kitten, T., Turner, L. S., and Xu, P.
2011. Biological implications of the Streptococcus
sanguinis genome, p. 43-61. In P. E.
Kolenbrander (ed.), Oral Microbial Communities: Genomic
Inquiry and Interspecies Communication. ASM Press,
Washington, D.C. Jones
D.J., Munro C.L., Grap M.J., Kitten T., and Edmond M.
2010. Oral care and bacteremia risk in mechanically
ventilated adults. Heart Lung: 39:S57-65. Ge, X., Kitten, T., Munro, C. L., Conrad, D. H., and Xu, P. 2010. Pooled protein immunization for identification of cell surface antigens in Streptococcus sanguinis. PLoS ONE 5:e11666. Turner, L. S., Kanamoto, T., Unoki, T., Munro, C. L., Wu,
H., and Kitten, T. 2009. A comprehensive evaluation of Streptococcus
sanguinis cell wall-anchored proteins in early
infective endocarditis. Infect. Immun. 77: 4966-4975. Turner, L. S., Das, S., Kanamoto, T., Munro, C. L., and
Kitten, T. 2009. Development of genetic tools for in vivo
virulence analysis of Streptococcus sanguinis.
Microbiology 155: 2573-2582. Das, S., Kanamoto, T., Ge, X., Xu, P., Unoki, T., Munro, C. L., and Kitten, T. 2009. Contribution of lipoproteins and lipoprotein processing to endocarditis virulence in Streptococcus sanguinis. J. Bacteriol 191:4166-4179. Tang, G., Kitten, T., Munro, C. L., Wellman, G. C., and Mintz, K. P. 2008. EmaA, a potential virulence determinant of Aggregatibacter (Actinobacillus) actinomycetemcomitans in infective endocarditis. Infect Immun 76:2316-2324. Ge, X., Kitten, T., Chen, Z., Lee, S. P., Munro, C. L., and Xu, P. 2008. Identification of Streptococcus sanguinis genes required for biofilm formation and examination of their role in endocarditis virulence. Infect Immun 76:2551-2559. Xu, P., J. M. Alves, T. Kitten, A. Brown, Z. Chen, L. S. Ozaki, P. Manque, X. Ge, M. G. Serrano, D. Puiu, S. Hendricks, Y. Wang, M. D. Chaplin, D. Akan, S. Paik, D. L. Peterson, F. L. Macrina, and G. A. Buck. 2007. Genome of the opportunistic pathogen Streptococcus sanguinis. J Bacteriol 189:3166-3175. Paik, S., Senty, L., Das, S., Noe, J. C., Munro, C. L., & Kitten, T. 2005. Identification of virulence determinants for endocarditis in Streptococcus sanguinis by signature-tagged mutagenesis. Infect Immun 73:6064-74. Das, S., Noe, J. C., Paik, S., & Kitten, T. 2005. An improved arbitrary primed PCR method for rapid characterization of transposon insertion sites. J Microbiol Methods 63: 89-94. Paik, S. Brown, A. Munro, C. L. Cornelissen, C. N. & Kitten, T. 2003. The sloABCR Operon of Streptococcus mutans Encodes a Mn and Fe Transport System Required for Endocarditis Virulence and its Mn-Dependent Repressor. J. Bacteriol. 185: 5967-5975. Califano, J.V., Arimoto, T., & Kitten, T. 2003. The genetic relatedness of Porphyromonas gingivalis clinical and laboratory strains assessed by analysis of insertion sequence (IS) element distribution. J. Periodont. Res. 38: 411-416. Kitten, T., Munro, C. L., Wang, A., & Macrina, F. L.
2002. Vaccination with FimA from Streptococcus
parasanguis protects rats from endocarditis caused
by other viridans streptococci. Infect. Immun. 70:422-425.
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Training Opportunities: |
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[The
Philips Institute] [School of Dentistry]
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Administrator of this page: tkitten@vcu.edu Last update: February 6, 2012 |