| Budget Amount *help |
¥18,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥3,640,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥840,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥5,330,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,230,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥9,230,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,130,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Bacterial infection often causes serious diseases. This could be avoided when the virulence of bacteria is kept sufficiently low. We hypothesize that bacteria possess a gene(s) that creates the coexistence of hosts and invading bacteria. This study was undertaken to identify such a bacterial gene using Escherichia coli and Drosophila melanogaster as a model bacterium and host, respectively. We identified envZ-ompR, a pair of genes coding for the two-component regulatory system EnvZ-OmpR, that mitigates the virulence of E. coli in Drosophila. The enhanced expression of envZ-ompR and the phosphorylation of EnvZ were observed under infectious state. Forced expression of ompC, one of the target genes of EnvZ-OmpR, rescued the virulence phenotype of an envZ-ompR mutant. OmpC as an outer membrane protein has been known to protect bacteria from a change of osmotic pressure. The mechanisms of the induction of envZ-ompR and a mode of actions of OmpC await further investigation.
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