Location location location - how genome position affects gene expression

Bacterial genomes have evolved over billions of year to allow efficient expression of the right
genes at the right times. It has become clear that the same gene, placed in different locations
around a bacterial chromosome can display very different levels of expression. The rules
which govern this are however not fully understood. This project aims to examine how position
within a genome can affect gene expression, this will help us both understand how genomes
work and evolve, and allow us to rationally design synthetic chromosomes which will deliver
optimised expression of important genes.
The project will compare expression of millions of copies of the same gene promoters in both
Salmonella and E. coli - two related species which share some genome organisation but
control gene expression differently - using tools to allow expression to be measured under
different conditions, and a mix of molecular microbiology, transcriptomics and informatics.