Structure of the Tat protein translocase

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All bacteria produce proteins that operate on the outside of the bacterial cell. Good examples of this are the toxins produced by bacterial pathogens. Since bacteria only make proteins inside the cell, the newly-synthesised extracellular proteins must be moved out of the cell across the normally impermeable cell membrane. This task is carried out by machines termed protein transporters that are located in the cell membrane. The Tat protein transporter is found in many different bacteria including almost all those which cause human diseases such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (which causes tuberculosis), and Salmonella (which causes food poisoning). In pathogenic bacteria the Tat transporter is essential for the bacterium to cause disease. Thus, scientists are becoming increasingly interested in developing drugs that prevent the Tat system from working. In order to understand how the Tat machinery works, and ultimately to design new drugs to stop it working, this project aims to determine the structure of the Tat transport apparatus using X-ray crystallography.