Laws of attraction and repulsion: a novel family of bacterial chemo-sensors

该项目旨在揭示一个新特征的结构基础，广泛的趋化受体家族感知和区分引诱剂和驱避剂。许多细菌是活动的。控制细菌群的运动需要了解它们的化学感觉机制。预计这项工作将在信号生物学领域产生重要的新知识，这将推动发现新的化学效应物和重新设计受体特异性。创新地利用这些知识可以开发出无毒的新型驱蚊剂。这可以作为一种手段来防止细菌积聚在植入的医疗设备上引起的感染。

This project aims to reveal the structural basis for the abilities of a newly characterised, widespread family of chemotaxis receptors to sense and distinguish between attractants and repellents. Many bacteria are motile. Controlling the movement of bacterial populations requires understanding of their chemosensory mechanisms. It is anticipated that this work will generate significant new knowledge in the field of signalling biology that will drive the discovery of novel chemo-effectors and the redesign of receptor specificity. Innovative use of this knowledge could be the development of new classes of repellents that are not toxic. These could be used as a means to prevent infections caused by bacterial build-up on implanted medical devices.