[afro-nets] Open Learning Web site on Enteric pathogens

["Salvatore Rubino" <rubino@uniss.it>]

Open Learning Web site on Enteric pathogens
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Dear Friends of the Open Learning Web site on Enteric pathogens

A new lecture is available at the new web site:
http://www.oloep.org

Regulon in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

V.Rosu & K.T. Hughes
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Italy
Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA

The flagellar organelle is a complex structure that, upon rotation, allows a bacterium to respond to attractants or repellents within its environment. In addition to its role in motility, the flagellum plays an important role in colonization of surfaces and in the host-bacterium interaction thus contributing to bacterial virulence. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium possesses about 6 to 10 peritrichous flagella per cell.  An individual flagellum is composed of three structural components: a basal body, a hook and a filament. Flagellar assembly proceeds from the cytoplasm to the tip of the growing organelle, with the inner part of the basal body assembled first, followed by the hook and later by the filament. The cost of the maintenance of a flagellar motility system is high due to the large number of genes and protein subunits and the energy required for flagellum synthesis and functioning, which is about 2% of biosynthetic energy expenditure of the cell.  As a result, the flagellar system of Salmonella is highly regulated at multiple levels including responses to environmental cues and the developmental stages of the organelle. This lecture provides an overview on flagellar regulatory network in Salmonella and on transcriptional and post-transcriptional controls mechanisms associated to flagellin biosynthesis.

Ciao Salvatore Rubino

Prof. Salvatore Rubino
Dip. di Scienze Biomediche
V.le San Pietro 43/b
07100 Sassari (Italy)
Tel: +33/79/228302
Fax: +33/79/212345
Cell: +33-83865292
email: mailto:rubino@uniss.it