Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 2 Effector Proteins

Salmonella are facultative intracellular pathogens which cause significant diseases in humans and animals.These organisms cause several disease syndromes, including enteric (typhoid) fever, gastroenteritis,bacteremias and focal infections. Typhoid fever is a severe systemic illness which is mostly a problem in thedeveloping world and in travelers. Non-typhoidal salmonella infections are increasing in the USA and arelargely associated with contaminated food. Salmonellae infections are most severe in infants, the elderly, andin immunosuppressed individuals. This grant proposes to study a set of virulence genes, termed Salmonellatranslocated effectors, that are translocated across the phagosome membrane into the eucaryotic cellcytoplasm by a type III secretion system encoded on Salmonella pathogenecity island II will be studied. Thisgrant proposes to further define these proteins, and to study in molecular detail their role in bacterial virulence.