Analysis of the role of the TAT protein translocation system in Campylobacter jejuni

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Some bacteria get into the food that we eat and cause food-poisoning. Some of these bacteria are quite common but are usually killed during cooking. When chicken meat is not cooked properly, one of these types of bacteria, called Campylobacter jejuni, is a particular problem. If we can understand what allows C.jejuni to grow in chickens and reduce the level of contamination of chicken carcasses, this will help reduce the scale of the risk to human health. In the chicken gut, the oxygen concentrations are very low and C. jejuni has to adapt it's metabolism to this environment. This project is aimed at understanding how certain proteins which are needed in this adaptation and which often function outside the cell, get to their final location using a special type of export system. We will try to find out what happens when the cell is prevented from exporting these proteins, and what the functions of some of them are. The results should help us to understand better the role that these types of exported proteins play in the overall biology of campylobacter and may even identify specific targets for intervention that might in the future allow the control of the growth of the bacteria in the avian gut.