Manipulation of bacterial membrane vesicle for infection control applications

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670211
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Bacteriology (including mycology)
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: TOBE Toru 大阪大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (70207596)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 外膜小胞 / デリバリーシステム / エンドトキシン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Almost all bacteria are known to produce membrane vesicle. Outer membrane vesicle is a membrane vesicle produced from outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. In this project, we aimed to strengthen basic knowledge on OMV characteristics for future application. We used E. coli as a model and obtained the following results. We found that production efficiency of OMV was affected by variety of environmental factors and different among strains, and that only small amount of cytoplasmic proteins were included in OMV. By using kanamycin-resistance as a marker protein, transfer of kanamycin-inactivation enzyme from resistant strain to sensitive strain was suggested. On the other hand, we developed the system to present any protein fragment on cell surface by using an autotransporter protein. Finally, we found the gene that modifies Lipid A and reduces endotoxin activity. These findings are useful for development of OMV-based strategy for infection control.

Free Research Field

細菌学