Our Yersinia pseudotuberculosis research
Introduction
Y. pseudotuberculosis is a highly adaptable Gram negative psychrotrophic primary human pathogen of the Enterobacteriaceae family which can cause self-limiting diseases ranging from mild gastroenteritis to more serious mesenteric lymphadenitis. Infections are not usually life threatening although complications may occur in young or immunocompromised individuals. The bacteria often disseminate from the intestines where they have a tropism for lymph tussue and can further migrate to deeper tissues and organs such as the spleen and liver where they cause systemic infection. Y. pseudotuberculosis is extremely closely related to Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, and more distantly related to Yersinia enterocolitica which causes a range of diseases similar to Y. pseudotuberculosis. All pathogenic strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis possesses a type three secretion system, the components of which are coded on a 70 kb virulence plasmid termed pYV. This highly specialised nanostructure is analogous to a hypodermic needle which injects effector proteins into the host cell, triggering cytoskeletal rearrangements and apoptosis.
Research areas:
The molecular genetic mechanisms regulating biofilm, motility, quorum sensing, aggregation, N-acetylglucosamine metabolism and type three secretion.
The role of the virulence plasmid in the regulation of these phenotypes.
Y. pseudotuberculosis is a highly adaptable Gram negative psychrotrophic primary human pathogen of the Enterobacteriaceae family which can cause self-limiting diseases ranging from mild gastroenteritis to more serious mesenteric lymphadenitis. Infections are not usually life threatening although complications may occur in young or immunocompromised individuals. The bacteria often disseminate from the intestines where they have a tropism for lymph tussue and can further migrate to deeper tissues and organs such as the spleen and liver where they cause systemic infection. Y. pseudotuberculosis is extremely closely related to Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, and more distantly related to Yersinia enterocolitica which causes a range of diseases similar to Y. pseudotuberculosis. All pathogenic strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis possesses a type three secretion system, the components of which are coded on a 70 kb virulence plasmid termed pYV. This highly specialised nanostructure is analogous to a hypodermic needle which injects effector proteins into the host cell, triggering cytoskeletal rearrangements and apoptosis.
Research areas:
The molecular genetic mechanisms regulating biofilm, motility, quorum sensing, aggregation, N-acetylglucosamine metabolism and type three secretion.
The role of the virulence plasmid in the regulation of these phenotypes.
Y. pseudotuberculosis biofilm formation on the surface of the nematode worm C. elegans. The parent strain of Y. pseudotuberculosis (green) embeds in a self produced biofilm (red) and colonises the surface of C. elegans (left image). Biofilm can be attenuated in Y. pseudotuberculosis mutants (right image).
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