Puhar Lab
banner
lab-puhar.bsky.social
Puhar Lab
@lab-puhar.bsky.social
We study gut bacteria and the immune response to infection with a focus on the danger signal extracellular ATP. We particularly like Shigella and E. coli. Located at Queen's University Belfast, UK and Umeå University, Sweden.
October 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Experiments 🔬were spearheaded by queen of illustrations 🎨 Sophie Tronnet (now building her group at @univ-amu.fr) with key computational work 🖥️ by Vikash Pandey in Oliver Billker’s lab, and great help from Miriam Lloret, Mario Pérez, Carlos Hernández, Niklas Söderholm, and Anders Nordström.
October 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The response is concentration-, time-, and medium-dependent and several changes were induced by intact eATP. This implies that eATP sensing takes place at the bacterial surface. How? Some more🕵️‍♀️ detective work required there! 🔍 As always, stay tuned!
October 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
In probiotic, pathobiontic, and pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae, eATP regulates fitness and virulence factors, supporting the notion that eATP could act as intestinal site- and infection stage-dependent cue🚦in bacteria causing high eATP (Shigella, Salmonella, EPEC...) or in bystanders.
October 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Good news for protective responses 🛡️against infection: eATP sensitises E. coli to antimicrobial peptides. Less good news for antibiotic therapy 💊: after eATP treatment, it can go either way.
October 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
And bacteria 🦠 respond to eATP, too! The response of non-pathogenic E. coli was sweeping, with 20% of the genome regulated downstream of eATP, induction of intracellular second messengers, and modulation of biofilm formation, metabolism, and cell envelope composition.
October 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
High eATP in the gut regulates inflammation and is triggered by infection.
doi.org/10.1016/j.im...
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
Since not only host cells but also gut microbes 🦠 are exposed to eATP,💡we wondered whether bacteria can respond to eATP fluctuations. Animals 🐕, plants 🌴, and fungi 🍄 do!
Redirecting
doi.org
October 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
October 7, 2025 at 3:41 PM