The Bacterial Invasion Port of Bdellovibrio

由于许多细菌病原体对抗生素和抗菌剂产生耐药性，因此迫切需要找到新的方法来消灭细菌病原体。重要的是防止植物、作物和农场动物感染疾病，并保护人类健康。一些对人类无害的掠食性细菌通过在细菌病原体体内建立一个分子“端口”并通过这个端口进入杀死它们，从而自然杀死细菌病原体。重要的是，由于这个通道是由几个分子部分组成的，病原体很难适应不适合其中一个部分，从而逃脱入侵。此外，通过端口泵入的物质善于攻击细菌膜——没有很多抗生素能做到这一点。因为蛭弧菌只攻击细菌，它们不会伤害人类或人类的膜。我们最近发现了掠食性细菌Bdellovibrio自然入侵端口的一些部分，以及一些与端口一起工作的控制蛋白。我们现在想知道这些部分是如何一起工作来构建和协调端口的功能，这样我们就知道细菌膜是如何被入侵的。然后，我们将能够使用所有这些部分来构建一个工具包，使致病菌被入侵和杀死。在这个项目中，我们试图找出哪些蛋白质化学物质通过端口被泵入细菌以及何时，以及当掠食性细菌泵入破坏膜的蛋白质时，是什么将端口附着在细菌上。我们可以用一种简单的彩色测试来观察一种蛋白质是否正在破坏细菌的膜。如果膜被破坏，彩色染料就会变成粉红色。通过这种方式，我们可以测试由细菌DNA编码的蛋白质，看看是什么使染料在接触细菌时变成粉红色，看看它们是否被每种蛋白质破坏。我们还认为，将蛭弧菌拉入细菌内部的一些相同的蛋白质可以通过捆绑不同的蛋白质来进行转化，并开始充当泵，将更多的降解蛋白质泵入细菌以分解它们。我们也将对此进行测试。从这个项目中，我们将学习如何通过使用蛭弧菌衍生材料攻击它们的外膜来对付农场、公共场所或医院建筑物中的致病菌。随着有效的抗生素越来越少，这些药物可能会继续发挥作用。

There is a great need to find new ways to destroy bacterial pathogens now that many are becoming resistant to antibiotics and antibacterials. It is important to prevent plant crops and farm animals against diseases, as well as to protect human health. Some predatory bacteria that are harmless to humans naturally kill bacterial pathogens by building a molecular "port" in them and entering through this port to kill them. Importantly, because this access port is build from several molecular parts, it is not easy for the pathogens to adapt to not fit one of the parts and so escape being invaded. Also the things that are pumped through the port are good at attacking bacterial membranes- there arent many antibiotics that do that. Because Bdellovibrio only attack bacteria they don't harm humans or their membranes.We recently identified some of the parts of the natural invasion port of the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio, and some control proteins that work with the port. We now want to find out how those parts work together to build and co-ordinate what the port does so we know how bacterial membranes are invaded. Then we will be able to use all these parts to build a toolkit to make pathogenic bacteria be invaded and killed.In this project we are trying to find out what protein chemicals are pumped through the port into the bacteria and when, and what attaches the port to the bacteria while the predatory bacteria are pumping in the membrane damaging proteins.We can use a simple coloured test to see if a protein is damaging the membrane of a bacterium. If the membrane is damaged then the coloured dye goes pink. In this way we can test proteins coded by the DNA of the bacteria and see which make the dye go pink when exposed to bacteria, to see if they are damaged by each protein.We also think that some of the same proteins that pull the Bdellovibrio inside the bacteria can then do a transformation by bolting on different proteins and start to act as a pump to pump more degrading proteins into the bacteria to break them down. We will test this too.From the project we will learn how to tackle pathogenic bacteria in farms or in public or in hospital buildings by attacking their outer membranes with Bdellovibrio-derived materials. These could go on to help as working antibiotics become scarcer.