Manipulating the PAAR proteins of Acinetobacter baumannii

The bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii causes a number of life-threatening infections. Aiding in A. baumannii prevalence in hospitals is its ability to attack and kill other bacteria around it, using a spear-like structure called the type six secretion system. This project focused on the sharpening protein at the tip of this spear, called PAAR. We determine the 3D shape of a PAAR protein that had a tail region and showed this protein interacted with other proteins and fats. We also performed PAAR tail “swaps” to determine if we could engineer an antibacterial PAAR protein that targets other bacteria.