Molecular mechanisms of pilin glycosylation in Neisseria: a model system for protein glycosylation in bacteria.

奈瑟菌皮林糖基化的分子机制：细菌中蛋白质糖基化的模型系统。引起疾病的细菌脑膜炎奈瑟菌和淋病奈瑟菌是重要的人类病原体。众所周知，被称为菌毛的细胞表面结构对于细菌粘附在宿主细胞上非常重要。遗传和结构研究已经确定，组成菌毛的蛋白质亚基是糖基化的——通过添加糖进行修饰。直到最近，革兰氏阴性细菌蛋白的糖基化才被认为发生，然而我们最近对这些细菌的研究，以及其他研究假单胞菌和弯曲杆菌的小组，已经表明这一过程可能是普遍存在的。在我们之前的研究中，我们已经确定并分析了细菌中涉及毛糖基化的一些基因，这些基因构成了已知的糖结构。我们已经利用这些信息来开发糖基化系统的生物化学和生理学如何工作的模型。奈瑟菌的糖基化结构已经建立，许多基因已经被鉴定出来，这是研究这一新的重要过程的最佳模型系统。在提出的研究中，我们描述了实验计划来测试我们的模型，并揭示了这一过程的分子细节。这项研究可能会导致我们对这一过程的理解取得重大进展，一旦理解，可能会在生物技术中有未来的应用。

Molecular mechanisms of pilin glycosylation in Neisseria: a model system for protein glycosylation in bacteria. The disease causing bacteria Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae are important human pathogens. Cell surface structures, called pili, are known to be important in allowing the bacteria to stick to host cells. Genetic and structural studies have identified that the protein subunits, which make up pili, are glycosylated - modified by the addition of sugars. Until recently glycosylation of Gram-negative bacterial proteins was not thought to occur, however our recent work with these bacteria, and other groups studying Pseudomonas and Campylobacter, have shown that this process may be widespread. In our previous studies, we have identified and analysed a number of genes involved in pili glycosylation, in bacteria, which make known sugar structures. We have used this information to developed models for how the biochemistry and physiology of the glycosylation system may work. With a well-established structure and many genes already identified, glycosylation in Neisseria represents the best available model system to study this novel and important process. In the proposed study we describe experiments planned to test our models and reveal the molecular detail of this process. This study could lead to major advances in our understanding of this process and, when understood, may have future applications in biotechnology.