Abstact

Tularaemia is an uncommon but potentially dangerous zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. As few as ten bacterial cells are sufficient to cause disease in a healthy human, making this one of the most infectious disease agents known. The virulence of this organism is dependent upon a genetic locus known as the Francisella pathogenicity island (FPI), which encodes components of a secretion system that is related to the type VI secretion system. Here, the cloning, expression, purification and preliminary X-ray diffraction statistics of the FPI-encoded protein IglE are presented. This putative lipoprotein is required for intra-macrophage growth and is thought to be a constituent of the periplasmic portion of the type VI-like protein complex that is responsible for the secretion of critical virulence factors in Francisella.