My research - CS1 pili of ETEC

Enterotoxigenic E. coli is a scary bug that makes people sick. Immuno-naive people, tourists, children and the elderly in third would countries mostly.

I am working with the ‘alternate’ chaperone usher pathway of CS1 pili in ETEC. It’s known as the alternate pathway because its functionally similar but genetically distinct from the ‘classic’ PAP pathway that we all know and love.

The original thinking is that this is an example of convergent evolution, since there is no homology, as far as we can tell between the two systems. And, until now, it was thought that the subunit interactions ran on slightly different mechanisms.

My project is trying to show that the chaperone-usher interaction is like that of the PAP pathway, showing that this actually a case of ancient divergence rather than convergence.

If I can do that, it could help elucidate a new model of infection for ETEC. w00t.

I don’t have any significant results yet, but I’m presenting my proposal and preliminary work to my lab group on Friday, and am currently working on my presentation. I’ll probably upload it to this blog upon it’s completion. Expect to be kept updated on my project and its results.

ecoli out.

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