Biochemical and structural studies of protein chaperones in salmonella

项目概述-本研究项目的目的是通过使用称为III型分泌系统的专门分泌装置，了解细菌在感染过程中如何利用其人类和动物宿主的机制。这个分泌系统就像一个分子注射器，将细菌蛋白质直接注射到宿主细胞中，这样细菌就可以霸占宿主细胞，为自己的生长服务。重要的是，破坏分泌系统使细菌无法感染宿主。我们的研究项目集中在肠沙门氏菌的III型分泌系统上，这种细菌感染了加拿大和世界各地的许多家养食用动物，并导致被感染的人类患上严重的胃肠道疾病。我们的工作包括识别和理解被称为伴侣的特殊细菌蛋白质的功能，我们认为这种蛋白质在感染期间协调III型分泌系统的组装和功能。这项工作将确定细菌如何利用伴侣蛋白网络最终导致人类和动物疾病的关键机制。

Project Summary - The aim of this research program is to understand the mechanisms of how bacteria exploit their human and animal hosts during infection by using a specialized secretion apparatus called the type III secretion system. This secretion system acts like a molecular syringe to inject bacterial proteins directly into host cells so that the bacteria can commandeer the cell for it's own growth. Importantly, disabling the secretion system render the bacteria unable to infect their hosts. Our research program is focused on the type III secretion system of Salmonella enterica, a bacteria that infects many domesticated food animals in Canada and throughout the world and that causes serious gastrointestinal illness in the humans that it infects. Our work involves identifying and understanding the function of specialized bacterial proteins called chaperones that we believe orchestrate the assembly and function of the type III secretion system during infection. This work will define key mechanisms of how bacteria use chaperone protein networks to ultimately cause disease in humans and animals.