Genomic analysis of the host-specific pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus

金黄色葡萄球菌引起危及生命的人类感染和经济上重要的家畜感染，如乳腺炎。有非常有限的跨种属感染转移表明，个别S。金黄色葡萄球菌克隆已经进化出仅感染单一宿主所需的机制。本项目的目的是确定哪些因素是由S。金黄色葡萄球菌有助于特定动物宿主的发病机制。此外，还对S.将探索感染不同动物物种的金黄色葡萄球菌克隆。这项工作将使用全基因组微阵列进行。微阵列由载玻片组成，载玻片可以代表该生物体全基因组中鉴定的每个基因。微阵列允许比较许多细菌分离物的基因组含量。然后，我们将通过测量抗体对特定因子的反应来确定这些基因是否在动物感染期间表达。这将表明这些蛋白质参与宿主-病原体相互作用，并可能在引起疾病中发挥作用。这些研究将为S.金黄色葡萄球菌的进化和发病机制，并将确定疫苗或治疗开发的新靶点。

Staphylococus aureus causes life-threatening infections of humans and economically important infections of domestic animals such as mastitis. There is very limited cross-species transfer of infections suggesting that individual S. aureus clones have evolved the mechanisms required to infect a single host only. The purpose of this project is to identify what factors are produced by S. aureus which contribute to pathogenesis of specific animal hosts. In addition, the evolution of S. aureus clones infecting different animal species will be explored. The work will be carried out using whole-genome microarrays. Microarrays consist of glass slides which can represent each of the genes identified in the whole genome of that organism. The microarray allows the comparison of the genome content of many bacterial isolates. We will then determine if the genes are being expressed during animal infection by measuring the antibody response to specific factors. This would indicate that the proteins are involved in host-pathogen interactions and may play a role in causing disease. Taken together, this study will provide new insights into S. aureus evolution and pathogenesis and will identify new targets for vaccine or therapeutic development.