Climate-Driven Oxygen Shifts as Drivers of Pathogenicity in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Climate change is destabilizing the environmental conditions that shape microbial life, including the oxygen and redox dynamics that govern how bacteria behave in soils, waters, and within the human host. Yet we understand little about how climate-driven shifts in these conditions influence the disease-causing potential of bacteria before they encounter a human host. This project will determine how fluctuating redox conditions and disrupted diel cycles, both intensified by climate change, reshape the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a globally important opportunistic pathogen that thrives across soils and in clinical settings. By uniting medical microbiology with soil biogeochemistry, our team will define how climate-relevant environmental rhythms tune virulence gene expression and whether they drive heritable changes that elevate infection risk. The work establishes redox regulation as a climate-responsive control layer for pathogen behavior, laying the foundation for predictive, prevention-oriented frameworks at the climate-health interface.

“Climate change is reshaping the environmental signals that microbes use to make decisions. By uncovering how these changes alter bacterial virulence, we aim to build a predictive framework that anticipates emerging infectious disease risks before they reach people.”

Sampriti Mukherjee,  Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology