New Insights into Bacterial Outer Membrane Biosynthesis

Strains of Escherichia coli deleted for the Tat protein export pathway show pleiotropic defects in their outer membrane. This phenotype is not due to the mislocalisation of any previously identified Tat substrate protein. This proposal has the following specific objectives: <OL> <LI> To identify the specific outer membrane defect in the tat mutant strains; <LI> To assess whether the Tat system plays a direct role in outer membrane biogenesis by exporting a critical protein involved in the biogenesis process; <LI> To characterise the physiological function of the novel and highly conserved YjeE protein; <LI> To map further mutations that genetically suppress the outer membrane defect of tat mutants.