Faculty Profile

Faculty Profile of Megan McEvoy

Megan McEvoy

Associate Professor

Email: mcevoy@email.arizona.edu
Building: BSW 516
Phone: 520-621-3489

Education and Appointments


  • Ph.D. 1997, University of Oregon, Eugene

Research Interests


  • Biochemistry
  • Bioinorganic
  • Protein and Membrane Biochemistry
  • Structural Biology

Research Summary

Research in the McEvoy lab uses a combination of biochemical and biophysical approaches to address protein structure/function relationships in microbial metal resistance systems.

Metals are required at low intracellular levels for proper cellular function. However environments with high metal concentrations can be lethal unless cells can regulate the levels of metals within the cell. Humans have taken advantage of the toxicity of metals and have used metals as antimicrobials in a wide variety of settings, though increasing numbers of organisms have been discovered with metal resistance systems that allows their survival in environments with high concentrations of metals.

One type of metal resistance system we have been studying is an export complex, the Cus system, which spans both the inner and outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria. This system is involved in copper and silver resistance in the bacterium E. coli, which provides an excellent model system to study metal transport and homeostasis. Our approaches to studying this system include biochemical characterization as well as structural characterization using NMR spectroscopy and x-ray crystallography. We are seeking to understand the molecular mechanism of this metal efflux system by determining the structures of the components and characterizing their interactions with each other and with metals.



Selected Publications

  • T. D. Mealman, I. Bagai, P. Singh, D. R. Goodlett, C. Rensing, H. Zhou, V. H. Wysocki, and M. M. McEvoy (2011). Interactions Between CusF and CusB Identified by NMR Spectroscopy and Chemical Cross-linking Coupled to Mass Spectrometry, Biochemistry, 50, 2559-2566. PMID: 21323389

  • E.-H. Kim, D. Nies, M. M. McEvoy, and C. Rensing. (2011) Switch or Funnel: How RND-type Transport Systems Control Periplasmic Metal Homeostasis, J. Bacteriology, in press, available online. PMID: 21398536

  • O. Conroy, E.-H. Kim, M. M. McEvoy and C. Rensing. (2010) Differing Ability to Transport Nonmetal Substrates by Two RND-type Metal Exporters, FEMS Microbiology Letters, 308, 115-122, PMID: 20497225

  • E.-H. Kim, C. Rensing, and M. M. McEvoy. (2010) Chaperone-mediated copper handling in the periplasm, Natural Product Reports 27, 711-719, PMID: 20442961

  • E.-H. Kim, X. Charpentier, O. Torres-Urquidy, M. M. McEvoy and C. Rensing. (2009) The Metal Efflux Island of Legionella pneumophila is not Required for Survival in Macrophages and Amoebas, FEMS Microbiology Letters, 301, 164-170, PMID 19895645

  • D. Quaranta, M. M. McEvoy, and C. Rensing. (2009) Site Directed Mutagenesis Identifies a Molecular Switch Involved in Copper Sensing by the Histidine Kinase CinS in Pseudomonas putida KT2440. Journal of Bacteriology, 191, 5304-5311. PMID: 19542288

  • I. Loftin, N. J. Blackburn, and M. M. McEvoy. (2009) Tryptophan Cu(I)-pi Interaction Fine-tunes the Metal Binding Properties of the Bacterial Metallochaperone CusF. Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 14, 905-912. PMID: 19381697

  • I. Bagai, C. Rensing, N. J. Blackburn, and M. M. McEvoy. (2008) Direct Metal Transfer between Periplasmic Proteins Identifies a Bacterial Copper Chaperone. Biochemistry, 47, 11408. PMID: 18847219 Rated by Faculty of 1000 as 9.0 "Exceptional".

  • I. Bagai, W. Liu, C. Rensing, N. J. Blackburn, and M. M. McEvoy. (2007) Substrate-linked Conformational Change in the Periplasmic Component of a Cu(I)/Ag(I) Efflux System. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 282, 35695-35702. PMID: 17893146

  • I. R. Loftin, S. Franke, N. J. Blackburn, and M. M. McEvoy. (2007) Unusual Cu(I)/Ag(I) Coordination of Escherichia coli CusF as Revealed by Atomic Resolution Crystallography and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy. Protein Science, 16, 2287-2293. PMID: 17893365

  • Kittleson, J.T., I.R. Loftin, A.C. Hausrath, K.P. Engelhardt, C. Rensing, and M. M. McEvoy. (2006) Periplasmic metal-resistance protein CusF exhibits high affinity and specificity for both CuI and AgI. Biochemistry, 45, 11096-11102. PMID: 16964970

  • I. R. Loftin, S. Franke, S. A. Roberts, A. Weichsel, A. Heroux, W. R. Montfort, C. Rensing, and M. M. McEvoy. (2005) A Novel Copper-Binding Fold for the Periplasmic Copper Resistance Protein CusF. Biochemistry. 44, 10533-10540. PMID: 16060662

  • Astashkin, A.V., A.M. Raitsimring, F.A. Walker, C. Rensing, and M. M. McEvoy. (2005) Characterization of the copper(II) binding site in the pink copper binding protein CusF by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 10, 221-230. PMID: 15770503


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