Investigation of a Novel Protein Implicated in Phosphate Metabolism in Bacteria.

Phosphate is an important nutrient for all forms of life on Earth. We have identified a novel bacterial protein that appears to be important for the uptake or processing of phosphate, since mutants lacking the protein grow poorly inside certain cells of the human immune system (where phosphate levels are low) and in media containing low phosphate . The aims of this proposal are 1) to determine the role of the protein by examining all phosphate containing molecules in our mutants 2) to determine its location in bacteria and functional domains 3) to identify other affected genes in our mutants 4) to find proteins that interact with this new protein. We expect to demonstrate that our protein is a new player in phosphate metabolism in bacteria.