Conférence de Peter van ULSEN (Department of Molecular
Microbiology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), le vendredi 13 février 2009 à 11 h 30, IBSM
(salle de conférences Jacques Senez), Campus Joseph Aiguier,
Bt IM, CNRS, Marseille : « The secretion and
function of autotransporter and two partner secretion pathways in
the human pathogen Neisseria
meningitidis ».
Résumé :
The human pathogen Neisseria meningitidis causes meningitidis
(méningite) and sepsis (septicémie) and is a leading
cause of infectious disease in very young children. Genomic
analyses have revealed that the Autotransporter (AT) and
Two-partner Secretion (TPS) pathways, both classified as Type V,
are the pathogens major secretion pathways that may contribute to
infection.
We focus on two aspects of the pathways :
- 1) How are the proteins transported over the bacterial cell
envelope ?
- 2) How do the secreted proteins contribute to virulence and can
they be used as potential vaccine constituents ? Recent advances in
the structural biology of autotransporters have challenged existing
secretion models. We investigated the role of the signal peptide in
the periplasmic transit of ATs. Furthermore, we recently discovered
new functions for the neisserial ATs. Neisserial TPS Systems have
attracted much less attention, but recent work on their secretion
and function identified novel features of this secretion
pathway.