One goal of our lab is to use amino acid coevolutionary information to better understand how bacterial two-component signaling (TCS) proteins preferentially interact with their correct partners and how this specificity is encoded in the sequence of the molecular interface. This knowledge can lead us to engineer novel molecular interactions.
Claude Sinner, Cheyenne Ziegler, Yun Ho Jung, Xianli Jiang and Faruck Morcos ELIHKSIR Web Server: Evolutionary Links Inferred for Histidine Kinase Sensors Interacting with Response Regulators Entropy. 23 (2), 170, 2021.
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Rey Dimas^, Xianli Jiang^, José Alberto De la Paz, Faruck Morcos* and Clement Chan* Engineering repressors with coevolutionary cues facilitates toggle switches with a master reset Nucleic Acids Research Vol. 47 (10), 5449–5463, 2019. (* Co-corresponding)
News: [Phys.org]
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Rey P Dimas, Benjamin R Jordan, Xian-Li Jiang, Catherine Martini, Joseph S Glavy, Dustin P Patterson, Faruck Morcos, Clement TY Chan Engineering DNA recognition and allosteric response properties of TetR family proteins by using a module-swapping strategy. Nucleic Acids Research. 2019
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Ryan R Cheng, Ellinor Haglund, Nicholas S Tiee, Faruck Morcos, Herbert Levine, Joseph A Adams, Patricia A Jennings, José N Onuchic Designing bacterial signaling interactions with coevolutionary landscapes PloS One. 13 (8), e0201734. 2018
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Ryan R. Cheng, Olle Nordesjö, Ryan L. Hayes, Herbert Levine, Samuel C. Flores, José N. Onuchic, Faruck Morcos. Connecting the sequence-space of bacterial signaling proteins to phenotypes using coevolutionary landscapes Molecular Biology and Evolution. 33 (12): 3054-3064. 2016
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Joseph S. Boyd, Ryan R. Cheng, Mark L. Paddock, Cigdem Sancar, Faruck Morcos, Susan S. Golden A Combined Computational and Genetic Approach Uncovers Network Interactions of the Cyanobacterial Circadian Clock J. Bacteriol. September 2016 198:18 2439-2447
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Ryan Cheng, Faruck Morcos, Herbert Levine and Jose N. Onuchic. Towards rationally redesigning bacterial two-component signaling systems using coevolutionary information. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA . 111(5): E563-71, 2014
Press Highlight in Phys.org: Researchers tune in to protein pairs: Team quanti es how mutations a ffect cell signaling in bacteria
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Peer-reviewed Conference Articles
Faruck Morcos, Charles Lamanna, Nitesh V. Chawla and Jesus Izaguirre. Determination of Specificity Residues in Two Component Systems using Graphlets. International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BIOCOMP). July, 2009.
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