Characterisation of a newly-discovered, virulence-associated, protein secretion system of enteropathogenic E. coli

细菌的细胞壁对它们产生的任何蛋白质的出口起到了屏障的作用。我们最近发现了一种蛋白质分泌系统，导致腹泻的大肠杆菌菌株需要这种系统才能致病。这项研究的目的是描述这种分泌系统的特征，并发现它是如何发挥作用的，以及它分泌什么。从这项研究中获得的知识将为了解大肠杆菌如何致病提供新的线索，并可能揭示治疗和预防这种细菌感染的新方法。

The cell walls of bacteria act as a barrier to the export of any proteins they produce. We recently discovered a protein secretion system, which diarrhoea-causing strains of E. coli require to cause disease. The aim of this study is to characterise this secretory system, and discover how it functions and what it secretes. The knowledge obtained from this research will shed new light on how E. coli causes disease and could reveal novel methods to treat and prevent infections with this bacterium.