Characterisation of autolytic programmed cell death in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms

细菌大多生活在称为生物膜的群落中，这些生物膜粘附在表面上，并通过一种粘性粘液保持在一起，以保护细菌免受抗生素和消毒剂的侵害。生物膜粘液通常含有大量来自死亡细菌的DNA和其他细胞碎片。事实上，一些细菌会通过爆炸产生粘性粘液来自杀，这种粘液有利于生物膜群落的其他成员。然而，这些自杀途径也增加了细菌对抗生素的敏感性，导致细胞开启自杀系统。重要的是，我们了解细菌如何控制其程序化自杀系统，以便我们能够开发更好的方法来抑制生物膜，并开发利用细菌自杀途径的有效抗生素治疗。该项目将探索重要细菌病原体铜绿假单胞菌的程序性自杀系统，该系统是医院获得性感染的主要原因，并且由于高水平的抗生素耐药性而成为我们最大的威胁之一。

Bacteria mostly live in communities called biofilms that are stuck to surfaces and held together by a sticky slime that protects the bacteria from antibiotics and disinfectants. Biofilm slime often contains lots of DNA and other cellular debris that came from dead bacteria. In fact, some bacteria will suicide by exploding to produce the sticky slime that benefits the other members of the biofilm community. However, these suicide pathways also increase the sensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics that cause cells to turn on the suicide systems. It is important that we understand how bacteria control their programmed suicide systems so that we can develop better ways to inhibit biofilms and to develop effective antibiotic treatments that exploit bacterial suicide pathways. This project will explore programmed suicide systems of the important bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa that is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections and is one of our greatest threats due to high levels of antibiotic resistance.