Theses and Dissertations
Issuing Body
Mississippi State University
Advisor
Thornton, Justin A.
Committee Member
Jordan, Heather R.
Committee Member
Seo, Keun Seok
Date of Degree
8-14-2015
Document Type
Graduate Thesis - Open Access
Major
Biological Sciences
Degree Name
Master of Science
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Department of Biological Sciences
Abstract
Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a major human pathogen and commensal organism of the nasopharynx. A major virulence factor of the pneumococcus is the cholesterol dependent, pore forming cytolysin pneumolysin. This toxin acts extracellularly, but the mechanism of release has not been well elucidated. Despite being a catalase negative organism, the pneumococcus produces up to millimolar concentrations of hydrogen peroxide through the activity of pyruvate oxidase. In all strains analyzed, deletion of the pyruvate oxidase gene yielded a significant reduction in the amount of PLY observed in the supernatant via western blot. A single strain, WU2 was also observed to have a significant (p<.05) reduction in the amount of PLY observed in the supernatant when treated with extracellular catalase. Furthermore, a significant correlation between hydrogen peroxide production and PLY release was observed in a panel of 15 clinical isolates.
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20163
Recommended Citation
Bryant, Joseph Colby, "The Impact of Pyruvate Oxidase (SpxB) on the Release of the Toxin Pneumolysin in Streptococcus Pneumoniae" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 4507.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/4507
