Daoguo Zhou

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Pathogenic Salmonella strains cause food poisoning, gastrointestinal inflammation, typhoid fever, and septicemia in humans. The bacteria achieve this by making a panel of specialized proteins that allows it to invade non-phagocytic intestinal epithelial cells, the first step in the disease process. Previous research has established that upon contact with the intestinal epithelial cells, Salmonella injects a set of proteins into the host cells through the bacterially encoded type III protein secretion system. These proteins subvert host cell signal transduction pathways to induce profuse actin cytoskeletal rearrangements and membrane ruffling, leading to the uptake of the bacterium. This uptake process is a highly regulated event and requires the coordinated action of the injected bacterial proteins as well as host proteins. My laboratory is interested in identifying and characterizing bacterial and host cellular proteins that are involved in Salmonella -induced actin cytoskeletal rearrangements, especially cellular proteins whose activities are modulated by Salmonella proteins. Studying the interaction between bacteria and their hosts has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of cellular microbiology. It will not only broaden our understanding of bacterial pathogenesis, but also will provide unexpected insights into basic host cellular functions, such as the cytoskeletal rearrangements and signal transduction pathways controlling cell movement.

Selected Publications:

Bourgeois, J. S., D. Zhou, T. L. M. Thurston, J. J. Gilchrist & D. C. Ko. (2018) Methylthioadenosine Suppresses Salmonella Virulence. Infect,Immun 86.

Yin, Y. & D. Zhou. Organoid and Enteroid Modeling of Salmonella Infection. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol., 04 April 2018 |,https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00102

Cheng S#, Wang L#, Liu Q#, Qi L, Yu K, Wang Z, Wu M, Liu Y, Fu J, Hu M, Li M, Zhou D*, Liu X*. Identification of a novel Salmonella type III effector by quantitative secretome profiling. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2017 Sep 8. pii: mcp.000230.2017. doi: 10.1074/mcp.RA117.000230. PMID: 28887382. 

Wang L, Cai X, Wu S, Bomjan R, Nakayasu ES, Händler K, Hinton JCD, Zhou D. InvS Coordinates Expression of PrgH and FimZ and Is Required for Invasion of Epithelial Cells by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. J Bacteriol. 2017 Jun 13;199(13). pii: e00824-16. doi: 10.1128/JB.00824-16. PMID: 28439039; PMCID: PMC5472816.

Bi P, Yue F, Sato Y, Wirbisky S, Liu W, Shan T, Wen Y, Zhou D, Freeman J, Kuang S. Stage-specific effects of Notch activation during skeletal myogenesis. Elife. 2016 Sep 19;5. pii: e17355. doi: 10.7554/eLife.17355. PMID: 27644105; PMC5070950.

Piscatelli HL, Li M, Zhou D. Dual 4- and 5-phosphatase activities regulate SopB-dependent phosphoinositide dynamics to promote bacterial entry. Cell Microbiol. 2016 May;18(5):705-19. doi: 10.1111/cmi.12542. PMID: 26537021.

Zhao EY, Bao HX, Tang L, Zou QH, Liu WQ, Zhu DL, Chin J, Dong YY, Li YG, Cao FL, Poppe C, Sanderson KE, Johnston RN, Zhou D, Liu GR, Liu SL. Genomic comparison of Salmonella typhimurium DT104 with non-DT104 strains. Mol Genet Genomics. 2013 Nov;288(11):549-57.

Li D, Wang X, Wang L, Zhou D. The actin-polymerizing activity of SipA is not essential for Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium-induced mucosal inflammation. Infect Immun. 2013 May;81(5):1541-9. doi: 10.1128/IAI.00337-12. PMID: 23439302; PMC3648018.

Perrett CA, Zhou D. Salmonella type III effector SopB modulates host cell exocytosis. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2013 May;2(5):e32. doi: 10.1038/emi.2013.31. Erratum in: Emerg Microbes

Myeni SK, Wang L, Zhou D. SipB-SipC complex is essential for translocon formation. PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e60499. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060499. PMID: 23544147; PMC3609803.

Perrett CA, Lin DY, Zhou D. Interactions of bacterial proteins with host eukaryotic ubiquitin pathways. Front Microbiol. 2011 Jul 4;2:143. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2011.00143. PMID: 21772834; PMC3131157.

Piscatelli H, Kotkar SA, McBee ME, Muthupalani S, Schauer DB, Mandrell RE, Leong JM, Zhou D. The EHEC type III effector NleL is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that modulates pedestal formation. PLoS One. 2011 Apr 26;6(4):e19331. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019331. PMID:

Perrett CA, Zhou D. Type three secretion system effector translocation: one step or two? Front Microbiol. 2011 Mar 16;2:50. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2011.00050. PMID: 21833307; PMC3153026.

Lin DY, Diao J, Zhou D, Chen J. Biochemical and structural studies of a HECT-like ubiquitin ligase from Escherichia coli O157:H7. J Biol Chem. 2011 Jan 7;286(1):441-9. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M110.167643. PMID: 20980253; PMC3013003.

Srikanth CV, Wall DM, Maldonado-Contreras A, Shi HN, Zhou D, Demma Z, Mumy KL, McCormick BA. Salmonella pathogenesis and processing of secreted effectors by caspase-3. Science. 2010 Oct 15;330(6002):390-3. doi: 10.1126/science.1194598. PMID: 20947770; PMC4085780.

Wang X, Li D, Qu D, Zhou D. Involvement of TIP60 acetyltransferase in intracellular Salmonella replication. BMC Microbiol. 2010 Aug 26;10:228. doi: 10.1186/1471-2180-10-228. PMID: 20796290; PMC3313078.

Myeni SK, Zhou D. The C terminus of SipC binds and bundles F-actin to promote Salmonella invasion. J Biol Chem. 2010 Apr 30;285(18):13357-63. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M109.094045.

Diao J, Zhang Y, Huibregtse JM, Zhou D, Chen J. Crystal structure of SopA, a Salmonella effector protein mimicking a eukaryotic ubiquitin ligase. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2008 Jan;15(1):65-

Chang J, Myeni SK, Lin TL, Wu CC, Staiger CJ, Zhou D. SipC multimerization promotes actin nucleation and contributes to Salmonellainduced inflammation. Mol Microbiol. 2007 Dec;66(6):1548-56. PMID: 18005098.

Dai S, Zhang Y, Weimbs T, Yaffe MB, Zhou D. Bacteria-generated PtdIns(3)P recruits VAMP8 to facilitate phagocytosis. Traffic. 2007 Oct;8(10):1365-74. PMID: 17645435.

Zuo X, Zhang J, Zhang Y, Hsu SC, Zhou D, Guo W. Exo70 interacts with the Arp2/3 complex and regulates cell migration. Nat Cell Biol. 2006 Dec;8(12):1383-8. PMID: 17086175.

Zhang Y, Higashide WM, McCormick BA, Chen J, Zhou D. The inflammation-associated Salmonella SopA is a HECT-like E3 ubiquitin ligase. Mol Microbiol. 2006 Nov;62(3):786-93. PMID: 17076670.

Hu H, Sa Q, Koehler TM, Aronson AI, Zhou D. Inactivation of Bacillus anthracis spores in murine primary macrophages. Cell Microbiol. 2006 Oct;8(10):1634-42. PMID: 16984418.

Higashide W, Zhou D. The first 45 amino acids of SopA are necessary for InvB binding and SPI-1 secretion. J Bacteriol. 2006 Apr;188(7):2411-20. PMID: 16547027; PMC1428425.

Zhang Y, Higashide W, Dai S, Sherman DM, Zhou D. Recognition and ubiquitination of Salmonella type III effector SopA by a ubiquitin E3 ligase, HsRMA1. J Biol Chem. 2005 Nov 18;280(46):38682-8. PMID: 16176924.

Chang J, Chen J, Zhou D. Delineation and characterization of the actin nucleation and effector translocation activities of Salmonella SipC

#These authors contributed equally to this article.