Grant: Operating Grant

Redox enzymes are responsible for the energy production and maintenance of cells. Many different bacterial bioenergetic enzymes use alternatives to oxygen in their respiratory chains. These enzymes are complex with multiple components that interact with the cell membrane. In many cases the production of these enzymes and their final cellular location are on opposite sides of the cell membrane. Moving proteins across biological membrane is a fundamental process in cell biology. I discovered 10 years ago, a system that moves or translocates these bioenergetic enzymes across the membrane. In order to target such proteins to this translocase, these proteins have unique leader sequences that act as an address for the protein. We are interested in proteins that interact with this leader address, and chaperone the protein to the membrane and help the protein mature into a functional respiratory system. Our group has identified a number of these chaperone like proteins. The goal of this research is to understand how these proteins recognize different leader address signals and how they play a role in these proteins' maturation events leading to a healthy bacterial cell. This research is important, as it has been observed that bacteria deficient in the translocase have lost their pathogenic properties and grow as a community of cells.