tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post1983902782138547251..comments2024-02-08T12:10:38.282+00:00Comments on Life of a Lab Rat: Signals for InfectionLab Rathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07962574174521597312noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-91031055986531600642011-03-03T14:52:18.908+00:002011-03-03T14:52:18.908+00:00@James: The phosphoglycerol is just a small molecu...@James: The phosphoglycerol is just a small molecule used for post-transcriptional modification. It's made by the bacteria. Getting it to be sequestered somehow would be very, very difficult.<br /><br />Control of the pptB gene does inhibit infection, but I'm certainly not suggesting this as a pharmaceutical product! It would be pretty much impossible to try and genetically engineer bacteria in an infection. Blocking the actual modification would be more the way to go, possibly knocking out or inhibiting the protein that's responsible for adding the phosphoglycerol.Lab Rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07962574174521597312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-65772915399781360032011-03-01T21:54:49.837+00:002011-03-01T21:54:49.837+00:00I had a few questions Rat. Presumably pili clumpin...I had a few questions Rat. Presumably pili clumping precedes aggregation and development of pathogenesis and the clumping requires the phosphoglycerol modification.<br /><br />Where does the phosphoglycerol come from? Is it host or bacterial derived?<br /><br />What else does phosphoglycerol do?<br /><br />Your suggestion that control of the pptB gene could inhibit infection but is it not also possible to sequester or cleave phosphoglycerol to achieve the same goal? My guess would be that this would be easier than gene level interventions is all :)<br /><br />Nice post, thought and question stimulating...Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12364150752002154942noreply@blogger.com