VIRULENCE GENE REGULATION IN STAPHYLOCOCCUS AND IDENTIFICATION OF SMALL MOLECUL

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major animal pathogens that continues to be a main public health concern; due to the lack of an effective vaccine and the emergence of multiple antibiotic-resistant strains either in community associated or in hospital associated. Staphylococcal pathogenesis is a complex multifactorial process, which involves multiple regulatory systems. The function of the regulatory systems or the transcriptional regulation of the basic biological process is based on DNA-protein and protein-protein interactions to the upstream promoter region; therefore, understanding the role of the networks involved in gene regulation will be useful for the development of new agents to control and prevent staphylococcal infections. One of these regulatory systems is the SarA protein family in Staphylococcus. A total of ten SarA paralogs (SarA, SarR-V, SarX and Z, MgrA and Rot) are found almost in all sequenced S. aureus and S. epidermidis genomes. These proteins regulate many genes involved in regulation, virulence, autolysis, biofilm formation and metabolic processes. The precise mechanisms, by which this family of genes are regulated and regulate its target genes, are the research focuses in our laboratory. Apart from these, we are also working on metal oxide nanoparticles to develop potential agents, which will control and prevent the bacterial spreading in the community and hospital settings.