Research Publications (Food Safety)

The majority of M. tuberculosis infections result in latent tuberculosis where bacteria are dormant and exhibit phenotypic drug tolerance. Mycobacterial cell envelope lipids, or their biosynthetic precursors, are exported from the cytoplasm by MmpL transporters. We showed previously that MmpL11 exports lipids that are important for biofilm formation and non‐replicating persistence, two phenotypes associated with dormancy.

Sulfane sulfur such as glutathione persulfide (GSSH) is produced from H2S oxidation or from L‐cysteine metabolism. It accumulates inside Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 during the stationary phase of growth, inactivating a repressor to increase the expression of a major multidrug efflux pump. The finding explains why the bacterium is relatively resistant to antibiotics at the stationary phase of growth.

ES24, but not nitrofurantoin, inhibits SecYEG‐dependent protein transport in bacteria and exhibits anti‐bacterial activity towards various clinically relevant strains. In addition, ES24 affects many other processes important to E. coli, hinting at a multifaceted mode of action of ES24. Summary Eeyarestatin 1 (ES1) is an inhibitor of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) associated protein degradation, Sec61‐dependent Ca2+ homeostasis and protein translocation into the ER.

The ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter LptB2FGC extracts LPS from the inner membrane and powers the transport of the glycolipid to the cell surface in Gram‐negative bacteria. Our study shows that changes to the LPS structure and the transporter can affect how the function of the cytoplasmic LptB ATPase is coupled to the extraction of LPS by LptFG by either promoting or interfering with the collapse of the substrate‐binding cavity.

While exposure to high levels of toxic metals such as cadmium and arsenic is only experienced in a handful of special habitats and ecosystems, Listeria and other Gram‐positive bacteria have evolved an impressively diverse array of genetic tools for acquiring enhanced tolerance to such metals.

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Trivalent organoarsenic compounds are far more toxic than either pentavalent organoarsenicals or inorganic arsenite. Many microbes methylate inorganic arsenite (As(III)) to more toxic and carcinogenic methylarsenite (MAs(III)). Additionally, monosodium methylarsenate (MSMA or MAs(V)) has been used widely as an herbicide and is reduced by microbial communities to MAs(III).