Defining the cytoplasmic architecture that control bacterial type three secretion

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Many pathogenic bacteria use nano-machines to inject proteins into their hosts' cells to promote infection and colonisation by the bacterium. One such machine is called the Type Three Secretion System or T3SS. This application seeks to investigate the way in which bacteria select and secrete proteins by using a combination of different structural and functional methods. In particular we will study two pieces of the machine that are assembled within the bacterium which genetic evidence suggests are important for the process of selecting which proteins should be injected into the host and are also implicated in the actual process of driving injection. By using methods which allow us to "see" how these parts of the machine are constructed and complementing this with studies where we make small changes in the components from which the machines are constructed and look to see what effect this has on the function of the machinery we hope to deduce the molecular mechanisms of control. Since this machinery is only found in bacteria there is the potential that a good understanding of the T3SS will eventually lead to new antibiotics which are designed to specifically interfere with this key activity.