Award details

The role of phenylalanine in Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity

Reference	BB/C512161/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Simon J. Foster
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Sheffield
Department	Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	223,569
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/08/2005
End date	31/08/2008
Duration	37 months

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of disease, exacerbated by the spread of antibiotic resistance. We have recently discovered that a likely phenylalanine permease is an extremely important virulence determinent for this pathogen. This led to the exciting, novel and totally unexpected finding that S. aureus is able to catabolise phenylalanine. Thus this amino acid may form a major nutrient in vivo. This application will investigate the role of phenylalanine in the physiology of S. aureus. The work will take a number of concomitant and complementary approaches to elucidate fundamental biology and the potential for novel therapy. Firstly the specificity of the transporter will be determined and the role alternative Phe uptake mechanisms. Phenylalanine catabolism is likely to occur by a novel mechanism and a number of genetic, biochemical and physiological approaches will be used to characterise this. As phenylalanine transport is important in infection then the transporters must be expressed during infection. Whether they constitute antigens during human infection will be tested by screening sera from infected patients. Also the potential of PheP for novel therapy/prophylaxis will be assessed by immunisation studies with full length protein and peptides based on extracytoplasmic loops.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Immunology, Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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