Rodney K. Tweten

Biosketch

Dr. Tweten is a George Lynn Cross Research Professor and a President’s Associates Presidential Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences. He received a Master’s degree in Bacteriology at North Dakota State University and his Doctorate in Microbiology at Kansas State University. He underwent postdoctoral training in bacterial toxin structure and function at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He is the recipient of the Stanton L. Young inaugural Excellence in Science award, the President’s Associates Presidential Professorship, an NIH MERIT award and the J. J. Ferretti endowed chair of Microbiology and Immunology.

Research Interests

Dr. Tweten began studying the thiol-activated cytolysins that form large β-barrel pores, which he later renamed cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs) that is now the accepted name for these toxins. The CDCs are pathogenic factors in Gram-positive bacterial pathogens that include Streptococcus pneumoniae, S. pyogenes, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium perfringens and many others. His studies revealed the fundamental mechanism of pore formation by the CDCs. His seminal studies revealed not only how the CDCs work at the molecular level but established the basis of a widely used pore-forming mechanism. The CDC mechanism was subsequently found by others to be used by the eukaryotic immune defense proteins, as well as many marine protein toxins and antibacterial MACPF-related toxins in the gut microbiome. More recently he has discovered a large family of distant CDC relatives (termed CDC-like or CDCLs) in major species of the human gut and oral microbiomes, although relatives are present in hundreds of bacterial species from all terrestrial environments. A subset of the CDCLs, produced by species of the order Bacteroidales in the human gut microbiome are the primary focus of his current research. These CDCLs assemble a pore in a manner resembling the eukaryotic complement membrane attack complex and function as anti-bacterial pore-forming toxins that likely contribute to interspecies competition. His lab and those of his collaborators utilize protein engineering, crystallography, fluorescence spectroscopy and bacterial genetics to study the CDCs and CDCLs.