Project: Understanding the role of O-linked glycosylation within Burkholderia species
Scott group
Protein glycosylation, the chemical addition of sugars to proteins, is an important but poorly understood aspect of bacterial physiology. Within the Burkholderia genus, we have discovered a highly conserved O-linked glycosylation system. The conservation of this system across pathogenic and non-pathogenic species suggests that glycosylation plays a far more fundamental role in the physiology of Burkholderia than previously thought. The goal of this project is to understand the role of glycosylation in Burkholderia species. The long-term aim of this project is to learn how we can target protein glycosylation to generate new antimicrobial agents, and how we can exploit bacterial glycosylation systems to generate novel glycoconjugates such as vaccines.
O-glycosylation in Burkholderia species (A) Diagrammatic representation of the O-linked glycosylation system and the conserved biosynthetic O-Glycosylation Cluster (OGC) responsible for the generation of the O-linked glycan across the Burkholderiaceae. (B) Western analysis of DsbA1-his10 expressed in B. cenocepacia. Disruption of pglL or OGC leads to the loss of glycosylation in DsbA1 as shown by the change in protein migration.
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Scott group
2 vacancies
The Scott group focuses on understanding microbial mediate protein glycosylation and microbial pathogenesis. Glycosylation is a post-translational modification, which allows pathogens to radically alter the function of proteins both within microbes and the host cells they infect. Within a range of pathogens such as malaria, salmonella and Burkholderia cenocepacia, protein glycosylation can be used for both defensive and offensive processes. Using mass spectrometry-based approaches, the Scott group seeks to develop methodologies to identify and track microbial glycosylation events and investigate how microbes subvert host proteomes leading to disease.
Scott group Current Projects
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Understanding the role of O-linked glycosylation within Burkholderia species
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Application of proteomics to explore Burkholderia pathogenesis
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
Research degrees at the Doherty Institute are administered by the University of Melbourne.