Prof. Zhaoqing Luo from Purdue University paid a visit to IHB on April 20, 2017.

Prof. Zhaoqing Luo from Purdue University in the US was invited to visit Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) on April 20, 2017. During his visit, he gave an oral presentation with the title of “Making a living in a hostile environment: means by a bacterial pathogen”.

Prof. Luo began the presentation with his research work on Legionella and Legionnaires’ Disease. Legionella belong to gram-negative bacteria. At least 50 species and 70 serogroups of Legionella was identified. More than 90% infections were caused by L. pneumophila serogroup1 and L. longbeachae. Prof. Luo’ group found that the Doc/lcm transporter is essential for intracellular growth. Dot/lcm mutants of L. pneumophila are defective in intracellular multiplication.

At the same time, they found that L. pneumophila used sophisticated mechanisms to modulate host processes to create a niche supportive for its growth. Ubiquitination can be catalyzed by a single enzyme. Ubiquitin activation can be catalyzed by ADP-ribosylation. Phosphoribosylated ubiquitination can be enzymatically reversed. Temporal regulation of effector activity is essential for the biogenesis of the vacuole permissive for bacterial virulence.

Prof. Zhaoqing Luo is working at the Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University. His lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms that allow microbial pathogens to survive and multiply within the hostile host cells and how host cells respond to infection.