The periplasmic binding protein AfuA binds glucose-6-phosphate
In this PLoS Pathogens article (Sit et al.), undergraduate student Brandon Sit together with other members of the Moraes Lab used X-ray crystallography and additional biochemical and functional approaches to illustrate that AfuABC binds and transports sugar-phosphates such as glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) across the Gram negative bacterial membrane. In collaboration with the Vallance lab (at UBC) they went on to show that AfuABC is required by enteric pathogens to effectively transmit and re-establish infection, suggesting that the transport of sugar-phosphates is an important part of bacterial pathogenesis.
The article was also highlighted on the UofT news and Faculty of Medicine websites.
