How Bacteria Fold Virulence Factors to Cause Disease

细菌使用折叠酶来组装对细胞完整性和致病性至关重要的蛋白质。这些折叠酶包括催化二硫键引入的二硫键桥蛋白。本项目将研究两种重要的人类病原体--鼠伤寒沙门氏菌和致尿路病原性大肠杆菌，以解决跨细菌病原体的DSB网络的多样性以及这些折叠酶在毒力中的作用这一基本而鲜为人知的问题。这项研究将揭示细菌毒力因子是如何折叠的，确定治疗干预的新靶点，并为未来基于结构的新型抗菌药设计提供基础。

Bacteria use folding enzymes to assemble proteins essential for cell integrity and pathogenicity. These foldases include the Disulphide bridge proteins, which catalyse the introduction of disulfide bonds. This project will study two important human pathogens, Salmonella Typhimurium and uropathogenic Escherichia coli, to address the fundamental and poorly understood questions of diversity of Dsb networks across bacterial pathogens and the role of these foldases in virulence. The research will reveal how bacterial virulence factors are folded, identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention and provide the basis for structure-based design on new antimicrobials in the future.