HtrA chaperone activity contributes to host cell binding in Campylobacter jejuni

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Acute gastroenteritis caused by the food-borne pathogen <it>Campylobacter jejuni </it>is associated with attachment of bacteria to the intestinal epithelium and subsequent invasion of epithelial cells. In <it>C. jejuni</it>, the periplasmic protein HtrA is required for efficient binding to epithelial cells. HtrA has both protease and chaperone activity, and is important for virulence of several bacterial pathogens.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The aim of this study was to determine the role of the dual activities of HtrA in host cell interaction of <it>C. jejuni </it>by comparing an <it>htrA </it>mutant lacking protease activity, but retaining chaperone activity, with a Δ<it>htrA </it>mutant and the wild type strain. Binding of <it>C</it>. <it>jejuni </it>to both epithelial cells and macrophages was facilitated mainly by HtrA chaperone activity that may be involved in folding of outer membrane adhesins. In contrast, HtrA protease activity played only a minor role in interaction with host cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We show that HtrA protease and chaperone activities contribute differently to <it>C. jejuni</it>'s interaction with mammalian host cells, with the chaperone activity playing the major role in host cell binding.</p

Workflow Engineering in Materials Design within the BATTERY 2030+Project

In recent years, modeling and simulation of materials have become indispensable to complement experiments in materials design. High-throughput simulations increasingly aid researchers in selecting the most promising materials for experimental studies or by providing insights inaccessible by experiment. However, this often requires multiple simulation tools to meet the modeling goal. As a result, methods and tools are needed to enable extensive-scale simulations with streamlined execution of all tasks within a complex simulation protocol, including the transfer and adaptation of data between calculations. These methods should allow rapid prototyping of new protocols and proper documentation of the process. Here an overview of the benefits and challenges of workflow engineering in virtual material design is presented. Furthermore, a selection of prominent scientific workflow frameworks used for the research in the BATTERY 2030+ project is presented. Their strengths and weaknesses as well as a selection of use cases in which workflow frameworks significantly contributed to the respective studies are discussed