Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is an oral bacterial pathogen capable of causing self-limiting foodborne illnesses and lingering reactive arthritis. In so doing, this pathogen serves as a model organism to study both the cause and effect of sophisticated bacterial interactions with target human cells. To dissect some of these processes is our goal. One predominate determinant of Yersinia pathogenesis is a multi-component injection device capable of targeting toxic bacterial proteins directly into the eukaryotic cell interior. We therefore delineate the various molecular interactions between components of this injection device and uncover the consequences of these interactions with respect to toxin targeting into eukaryotic cells. In addition, we also investigate the physiological relationship between maintenance of bacterial envelope integrity while assembling multi-component virulence determinants in this organelle. We currently approach this by analyzing the impact that activation of extra-cytoplasmic stress responsive pathways has on virulence gene expression and cellular pathogenesis by Yersinia. Read More (Matthew Francis' group at Molecular Biology)

PI: Matthew S. Francis