Regulatory networks controlling virulence in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis.

控制淋病奈瑟菌和脑膜炎奈瑟菌毒力的监管网络。

• 批准号: nhmrc : 124465
• 负责人: Prof John Davies
• 金额: $ 20.06万
• 依托单位: Monash University
• 依托单位国家: 澳大利亚
• 项目类别: NHMRC Project Grants
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 澳大利亚
• 起止时间: 2000-01-01 至 2002-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://researchdata.edu.au/regulatory-networks-controlling-neisseria-meningitidis/98316
• 关键词: Regulatory; networks; controlling; virulence; Neisseria

Bacteria that cause disease produce substances called virulence determinants, often on their cell surface. These virulence determinants are either directly involved in allowing infection to take place, or cause the damage that we recognize as an infectious disease. Some virulence determinants are produced all the time, while others are only made in particular conditions - their expression is regulated. To target efforts in the development of new vaccines and treatments, it is important to identify all the virulence determinants produced by a particular bacterial species, but also to know which are regulated, and the environmental signals that determine their expression. It can be just as important to know whether a virulence determinant is constantly expressed, and therefore represents an invariant target. Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis are two important disease-causing bacteria that exclusively infect humans and cause gonorrhoea, and meningitis. The complete DNA sequence of both of these bacteria is currently being determined. From computer analysis of these data, it appears that these bacteria have few of the specific regulatory systems that are present in other bacteria. The availability of DNA sequencing data enables an alternative and much more systematic approach to the identification and study of the regulation of virulence determinants. Because of the limited repertoire of regulatory systems still present in N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis, it is feasible to mutate each and determine which are involved in regulation of virulence determinants. We will also be able to identify genes regulated by each system, determine how regulation is achieved, and use this information to identify any presently unknown virulence genes controlled by the same system. Such an analysis has never been previously achieved for any bacterial species, because of the number and complexity of the regulatory systems usually present.

致病的细菌通常在其细胞表面产生称为毒力决定因子的物质。这些毒力决定因素要么直接参与感染的发生，要么导致我们认为是传染病的损害。一些毒力决定因子一直在产生，而另一些毒力决定因子仅在特定条件下产生-它们的表达受到调节。为了有针对性地开发新疫苗和治疗方法，重要的是要确定特定细菌物种产生的所有毒力决定因素，还要知道哪些是受调控的，以及决定其表达的环境信号。同样重要的是要知道毒力决定因子是否持续表达，因此代表一个不变的目标。淋病奈瑟菌和脑膜炎奈瑟菌是两种重要的致病细菌，专门感染人类并引起淋病和脑膜炎。这两种细菌的完整DNA序列目前正在确定中。从这些数据的计算机分析来看，这些细菌似乎很少有其他细菌中存在的特定调节系统。DNA测序数据的可用性使一种替代的和更系统的方法来识别和研究毒力决定因素的调节。由于N.淋病奈瑟菌和淋病奈瑟菌。脑膜炎，是可行的突变每一个，并确定参与调节毒力决定因素。我们还将能够识别由每个系统调控的基因，确定调控是如何实现的，并利用这些信息来识别由同一系统控制的任何目前未知的毒力基因。由于通常存在的调节系统的数量和复杂性，这种分析以前从未针对任何细菌物种实现过。