The Role of Outer Membrane Agglutinins In Enteroaggregative Escherichia Coli Colonization

共生菌和病原菌都表达蛋白质，使它们能够在哺乳动物不断刷新的粘膜上定居。Okeke博士将与本科生合作，对大肠杆菌凝集素进行遗传和功能分析，这是一种被认为与定植有关的细菌表面蛋白家族。凝集素样基因存在于广泛的细菌物种的基因组中，包括共生体和线虫、节肢动物和哺乳动物的病原体。因此，了解大肠杆菌凝集素在定植中所起的作用可以提供对真核细胞和原核细胞相互作用的许多生态系统的洞察。凝集素编码基因在肠聚集性大肠杆菌(EAEC)中尤其常见，EAEC是一种高粘附性菌株，其定义是它们以特有的堆积式砖块模式附着在上皮细胞上。凝集素对EAEC中所见的定植表型的贡献，将通过在定植模型中创建和表征等基因凝集素基因突变来研究。此外，还将对EAEC和其他大肠杆菌菌株的凝集素基因和基因产物进行比较研究，以加深对该家族功能和调节的了解。这些凝集素基因表达和功能的研究将提高对真核宿主及其原核定植生物生物学的理解，并向本科生介绍这些生物学。

Commensal as well as pathogenic bacteria express proteins that enable them to colonize the continually flushed mucous membranes of mammals. Working with undergraduate students, Dr Okeke will undertake genetic and functional analyses of Escherichia coli agglutinins, a family of bacterial surface proteins hypothesized to be involved in colonization. Agglutinin-like genes are present in the genomes of a wide range of bacterial species, including symbionts and pathogens of nematodes, arthropods and mammals. Therefore knowledge of the role played by E. coli agglutinins in colonization could provide insight into many ecosystems where eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells interact. Agglutinin-encoding genes are especially common in enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), hyperadhesive strains that are defined by their ability to adhere to epithelial cells in a characteristic stacked-brick pattern. The contribution of agglutinins to colonization phenotypes seen in EAEC, will be investigated by creating and characterizing isogenic agglutinin gene mutants in models of colonization. Comparative studies of agglutinin genes and gene products, from EAEC and other E. coli strains, will also be conducted to improve the understanding of the function and regulation of this family. These studies of agglutinin gene expression and function will improve the understanding of, and introduce undergraduates to, the biology of eukaryotic hosts and their prokaryotic colonizers