Paper Title
Localization Analysis of Bacterial Virulence Proteins using MATLAB
Abstract
The surface of Bacteria bears a long hair like appendages called as Pili which were previously believed to play an
important role in Bacterial conjugation. Recent researches find their role in motility, virulence and biofilm formation.
Consequently, it becomes important to understand the subcellular assembly and localization patterns regarding the formation
of Pili which acts as a mediators of initial host pathogen interaction which in turn results in the development of bacterial
diseases. The pilus assembly in Gram positive bacteria takes place with the help of membrane anchored sortase enzyme. E.
faecal is includes two classes of sortases as SrtA and SrtC. SrtA also called as housekeeping sortase functions by attaching the
proteins to the cell wall and SrtC also known as pilin sortase aids in pilus fibre formation once when the pilin subunits are
translocated across the cell membrane by the protein conducting channel, SecA. Here we describe a high throughput image
analysis method based on a modular software suite, PSICIC done to quantify the localization of virulence protein –SrtA of a
gram positive bacteria E.faecalis.
Keywords- Pili, Virulence factors, Sortase enzyme, protein conducting channel, image analysis.