Prof. Filloux, Alain Ange Marie
Professor
Director, Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE)
Phone: (65) 6592 7942
Email: [email protected]
Our research project aims to tackle the problem of persistence and chronic infection by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa is a gram-negative bacterium found in various environments including soil, water and vegetation. Importantly it is an opportunistic human pathogen, responsible for numerous nosocomial infections in immuno-compromised patients. These infections are fatal in cystic fibrosis patients.
Our project follows several research lines, which deal with essential molecular mechanisms involved in biofilm formation and type VI protein secretion. These two key processes are co-regulated and highly relevant for P. aeruginosa pathogenesis. The regulatory control involves signalling pathways associated with two-component regulatory systems and the intracellular second messenger c-di-GMP. We address these questions using multi-disciplinary approaches in molecular microbiology, genetics, cellular microbiology, structural biology and biochemistry.
Research Areas
Molecular Basis of Bacterial Infection, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacterial Biofilms, c-di-GMP signalling, Type VI secretion system (T6SS)
- Fecht, S., Paracuellos, P., Subramoni, S., Tan, C.A.Z., Ilangovan, A., Costa, T.R.D., and Filloux, A. "Functionality of chimeric TssA proteins in the type VI secretion system reveals sheath docking specificity within their N-terminal domains." Nature Communications 15.1 (2024): 4283. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48487-8
- Nolan, L.M., Cain, A.K., Clamens, T., Furniss, R.C.D., Manoli, E., Sainz-Polo, M.A., Dougan, G., Albesa-Jové, D., Parkhill, J., Mavridou, D.A.I., and Filloux, A. "Identification of Tse8 as a Type VI secretion system toxin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa that targets the bacterial transamidosome to inhibit protein synthesis in prey cells." Nature Microbiology 6.9 (2021): 1199–1210. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00950-8
- Wood, T.E., Howard, S.A., Förster, A., Nolan, L.M., Manoli, E., Bullen, N.P., Yau, H.C.L., Hachani, A., Hayward, R.D., Whitney, J.C., Vollmer, W., Freemont, P.S., and Filloux, A. "The Pseudomonas aeruginosa T6SS delivers a periplasmic toxin that disrupts bacterial cell morphology." Cell Reports 29.1 (2019): 187–201.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.08.094
- Pissaridou, P., Allsopp, L.P., Wettstadt, S., Howard, S.A., Mavridou, D.A.I., and Filloux, A. "The Pseudomonas aeruginosa T6SS‑VgrG1b spike is topped by a PAAR protein eliciting DNA damage to bacterial competitors." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 115.49 (2018): 12519–12524. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1814181115
- Allsopp, L.P., Wood, T.E., Howard, S.A., Maggiorelli, F., Nolan, L.M., Wettstadt, S., and Filloux, A. "RsmA and AmrZ orchestrate the assembly of all three type VI secretion systems in Pseudomonas aeruginosa." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114.29 (2017): 7707–7712. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1700286114