Mapping Protein Interaction Networks Essential for Gonococcal Pathogenesis

淋病奈瑟氏菌(NGO)是性传播感染(STI)淋病的病原体，是一种高度 全世界每年约有1亿人患上发病率疾病。令人震惊的是，治疗和药理 治疗淋病的方法正受到全球出现的对所有病毒都有抗药性的超级细菌菌株的威胁 临床上有用的抗生素。淋球菌非常适应人类的生活，在某种程度上，它们已经 许多其他细菌的典型代谢能力取决于独特的策略，允许 在人类粘膜组织定植时的复制和免疫逃避。反映了这种专业化，Ngo 基因组编码的蛋白质数量不到在更典型的细菌(如大肠杆菌)中观察到的一半。一个 那么，生物之谜就是新序列基因组是如何进化来利用各种粘膜生态位的，以及如何 菌株变异是致病因素之一。我们的假设是，这取决于特定的蛋白质？？蛋白质。 而获取这些知识将具有重大的临床价值，因为它将揭示 淋球菌独特需要的蛋白质复合体和过程，但不是共生物种，因为 它们具有不同的功能能力，或者是因为较小的NisSerial基因组缺乏功能冗余 使其他细菌能够克服环境或其他压力。我们多学科的核心目标是 研究策略是为全球淋球菌蛋白相互作用网络的生成提供详细的 以系统为基础了解NGO在感染期间使用的特殊细胞器官。而当 种群基因组、转录图谱和基因筛查为了解NGO提供了宝贵的见解 生物学，这些研究将通过与全面的路线图相结合而获得显著的好处 详细说明了支持生长和感染表型的蛋白质复合体的组织。临床的关键 这个项目的相关性是通过对感染性临床的调查来关注菌株变异的影响。 Ngo的分离株，由Ngo的群体基因组学补充研究支持。我们将联合起来 定量质谱学、网络分析、比较基因组学和体外定向突变 以及体内表型分析，以阐明对感染和感染至关重要的大分子蛋白质组装 生殖器粘膜内的临床持久性。到这笔拨款结束时，我们将确定保存的密钥 驱动淋球菌生长、感染和适应人类粘膜的物理回路的组成部分 组织，提供对其独特病理生物学的机械洞察力，并为未来的临床奠定基础 防治传染病的干预策略。

Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ngo) is the etiological agent of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) gonorrhea, a high morbidity disease with ~100 million cases worldwide each year. Alarmingly, therapeutic and pharmacologic approaches to treat gonorrhea are under threat by the global emergence of `superbug' strains resistant to all clinically useful antibiotics. Gonococci are exquisitely adapted to life in humans, to the extent that they have shed much of the metabolic capacity typical of other bacteria and depend upon unique strategies that allow for replication and immune evasion while colonizing human mucosal tissues. Reflecting this specialization, Ngo genomes encode less than half the number of proteins observed in more prototypical bacteria such as E. coli. A biological enigma then is how the neisserial genome has evolved to exploit a variety of mucosal niches and how strain variation contributes to pathogenesis. Our hypothesis is that this depends on specialized protein-protein interaction networks, and that acquiring this knowledge will have major clinical value because it would reveal protein complexes and processes uniquely required by gonococci but not commensal species, either because they have distinct functional capabilities or because the smaller neisserial genome lacks functional redundancy that allow other bacteria to overcome environmental or other stresses. The core goal of our multidisciplinary research strategy is the generation of global protein interaction networks of gonococci that offer a detailed systems-based understanding of the specialized cellular apparatus used by Ngo during infection. While population genomic, transcriptional profiling and genetic screens have provided valuable insights into Ngo biology, these studies would gain significant benefit through their integration with comprehensive roadmaps detailing the organization of protein complexes that support growth and infection phenotypes. Key to the clinical relevance of this project is a focus on the impact of strain variation through investigations of infectious clinical isolates of Ngo, supported by complementary investigations of the population genomics of Ngo. We will combine quantitative mass spectrometry, network analysis, comparative genomics and targeted mutagenesis with in vitro and in vivo phenotype analysis to illuminate macromolecular protein assemblies that are critical to infection and clinical persistence within the genital mucosa. By the end of this grant, we will have identified key conserved components of the physical circuitry driving gonococcal growth, infection and adaptation to human mucosal tissues, providing mechanistic insights into its unique pathobiology, and laying the foundation for future clinical intervention strategies to combat infectious disease.