Deciphering the Role of Rgg in the Pneumococcal Signaling, Colonization and Virulence Portfolio

项目摘要 该项目的总体目标是促进我们对肺炎球菌定植的理解。 肺炎球菌疾病是美国和全世界发病率和死亡率的主要原因， 鼻咽的定植是肺炎球菌感染的第一步。虽然我们知道很多 关于表型和与肺炎球菌定植相关的细胞过程， 协调这些进程的问题还没有得到很好的理解。我们的初步工作表征Rgg 144- Shp 144调节肽信号转导系统使我们推测该系统在细胞内起着重要的作用。 在肺炎球菌定植中起着关键作用。在广泛的层面上，我们的工作将提供洞察力， 肺炎球菌定植和信号转导系统的Rgg家族，广泛分布于 链球菌和肠球菌。在一个特定的层面上，我们将确定哪些殖民相关 表型受Rgg 144调节，并确定Rgg 144是否通过介导这些表型 胶囊的调节（目标1）。我们将鉴定与肽调节剂相关的特定残基 相互作用和与调节剂-DNA相互作用（目的2）。我们将揭示SHP 144衍生的肽， 作为体外和体内的激动剂和拮抗剂，用于操纵系统的基本功能 研究以及未来的药物开发工作（目标2和3）。我们将提供一个体内 使用两种不同的鼠模型表征Rgg 144在多种组织中随时间的表达和活性 肺炎球菌感染模型（目的3）。总之，我们的发现将揭示Rgg 144的贡献。 转录调控的胶囊，推进我们对肺炎球菌定植的理解， 并揭示了抗肺炎球菌疗法的发展。这项工作的创新之处在于它 通过生成Rgg 144表达和活性的时空图来研究Rggs 在感染期间。

Project Summary The overall goal of this project is to advance our understanding of pneumococcal colonization. Pneumococcal diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States and worldwide, and colonization of the nasopharynx is the first step for pneumococcal infections. While much is known about phenotypes and cellular processes associated with pneumococcal colonization, the molecules coordinating these processes are not well understood. Our preliminary work characterizing the Rgg144- Shp144 regulator-peptide signal transduction system has lead us to hypothesize that this system plays a pivotal role in orchestrating pneumococcal colonization. At a broad level, our work will provide insight into pneumococcal colonization and the Rgg family of signal transduction systems, widely distributed in streptococci and enterococci. At a specific level, we will determine which colonization-associated phenotypes are regulated by Rgg144 and establish whether Rgg144 mediates these phenotypes via regulation of the capsule (Aim 1). We will to identify specific residues associated with peptide-regulator interactions and with regulator-DNA interactions (Aim 2). We will reveal SHP144-derived peptides that act as agonists and antagonists in vitro and in vivo, for use in manipulating the system in basic functional studies as well as future drug development efforts (Aim 2 and 3). We will provide an in vivo characterization of Rgg144 expression and activity in multiple tissues over time using two different murine models of pneumococcal infection (Aim 3). Together, our findings will uncover the contribution of Rgg144 to transcriptional regulation of the capsule, advance our understanding of pneumococcal colonization, and shed light on the development of anti-pneumococcal therapies. The work is innovative in that it approaches the study of Rggs by generating a spatio-temporal map of Rgg144 expression and activity during infection.