BBSRC DTP White Rose Studentship - Chickens, Chlorine and Campylobacter: New insights into the redo

Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of food-borne gastroenteritis in the western world. Human infections result from consumption of contaminated chicken and the incidence has increased in recent years, including the emergence of multi-drug resistant campylobacters. New interventions are needed to reduce the numbers of the bacteria in the food-chain. Proposals to introduce oxidative treatments in the UK such as chlorine washing of chicken carcasses are controversial and nothing is known about how C. jejuni responds to reactive chlorine species (RCS).

This project will seek to understand RCS effects, especially oxidation of Met and Cys residues in proteins and how C. jejuni defends itself and reverses these effects, using cutting-edge proteomics analyses employing high-resolution mass spectrometry combined with mutant studies and biochemical analysis of protein function.

Our approach will inform interventions to reduce the burden of Campylobacteriosis. This interdisciplinary project will provide training in molecular microbiological techniques including mutant construction and global protein expression analysis, as well as the application of proteomic techniques to an important biological problem.

 

Funding Notes

4 year BBSRC studentship, under the BBSRC White Rose Mechanistic Biology DTP
https://www.whiterose-mechanisticbiology-dtp.ac.uk/

We welcome applications from students with first degrees in Biological, Chemical or Physical Sciences. For successful applicants, the studentships would provide funding for tuition fees and living stipend at the current Research Council UK rates (subject to eligibility) for 4 years. Please note that EU citizens must have lived in the UK for at least 3 years to be eligible for full support.

Applicants should have or expect to achieve an undergraduate honours degree at 2.1 or higher in a relevant field

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mbb/postgraduate/phd/projects_fully_funded


 

References

AL-HAIDERI, H., WHITE, M.A, AND KELLY, D.J. (2016) Major contribution of the type II beta carbonic anhydrase CanB (Cj0237) to the capnophilic growth phenotype of Campylobacter jejuni. Environmental Microbiology 18, 721-735.

LIU, Y-W. AND KELLY, D.J. (2015) Cytochrome c biogenesis in Campylobacter jejuni requires cytochrome c6 (CccA; Cj1153) to maintain apocytochrome cysteine thiols in a reduced state for haem attachment. Molecular Microbiology 96, 1298-1317.

KENDALL, J.J., BORRERO-TOBON, A., HENDRIXSON, D. AND KELLY, D.J. (2014) Hemerythrins in the microaerophilic bacterium Campylobacter jejuni help protect key iron-sulphur cluster enzymes from oxidative damage. Environmental Microbiology 16, 1105-1121.

COLLINS MO, WOODLEY KT, CHOUDHARY JS. (2017) Global, site-specific analysis of neuronal protein S-acylation. Scientific Reports. ;7(1):4683