Identification of new effectors secreted by the Salmonella T6SS using in silico approaches and functional characterization of a candidate

• Grant number: 21/02536-1
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2021
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Biology and Physiology of Microorganisms
• Principal researcher: Ethel Bayer Santos
• Grantee: Andre Luiz de Araújo Silva
• Home Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/02178-2 - Function of type VI secretion systems of pathogenic bacteria in the interaction with eukaryotic cells, AP.JP

Abstract

Bacteria live in polymicrobial communities and constantly compete for resources. Gram-negative species such as Salmonella sp. encode a type VI secretion system (T6SS, which is a contractile apparatus formed by 13 proteins capable of injecting toxic proteins (effectors) into competing bacteria, inducing their death. The genus Salmonella encodes five phylogenetically distinct T6SS from different pathogenicity islands: Salmonella Typhimurium encodes an SPI-6 T6SS; S. Gallinarum encodes an SPI-19 T6SS; S. arizonae encodes SPI-20 and SPI-21 T6SSs; and S. bongori encodes an SPI-22 T6SS. The importance of the SPI-6 and SPI-19 T6SSs for the infection of susceptible hosts was demonstrated; however, to date only two effectors have been described as being secreted by the SPI-6 T6SS. The identification of new T6SS effectors and the characterization of their mechanisms would allow us to understand the contribution of these systems to the pathogenicity of Salmonella and the maintenance of environmental reservoirs. This project intends to use a series of bioinformatics approaches to identify the T6SS effector repertoire encoded in 10K genomes of Salmonella. After obtaining a list of candidates, a protein with a domain of unknown function will be chosen for functional characterization. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SIBINELLI-SOUSA, STEPHANIE; DE ARAUJO-SILVA, ANDRE LUIZ; HESPANHOL, JULIA TAKUNO; ETHEL, BAYER-SANTOS. Revisiting the steps of Salmonella gut infection with a focus on antagonistic interbacterial interactions. FEBS Journal, OCT 2021. Web of Science Citations: 0.