Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 1-15-2016 12:00 AM Structural and functional studies of the heptose modifying enzymes that play a role in Campylobacter jejuni virulence. Heba Soliman Barnawi The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Carole Creuzenet The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Microbiology and Immunology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Science © Heba Soliman Barnawi 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Microbiology Commons, Molecular Biology Commons, and the Structural Biology Commons Recommended Citation Barnawi, Heba Soliman, "Structural and functional studies of the heptose modifying enzymes that play a role in Campylobacter jejuni virulence." (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3478. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3478 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ABSTRACT Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of gastroenteritis in humans. The capsule of some species contains unique modified heptoses. Heptose modification and novel epimerases and reductases were identified for C. jejuni NCTC11168 and 18-176. We hypothesized that heptose modifying enzymes in C. jejuni have specific catalytic residues that allow for substrate and product specificity. Substrate synthesis, structural modeling, point mutations, and enzymatic analysis have been applied to map the active sites. Putative catalytic residues showed substrate and/or product specificity.