Bioinformatic Studies on Autotransporter Secretion System and the Beta-Barrel Assembly Machinery of Gram-Negative Bacteria

This thesis investigates the classification of proteins into families and super-families based on similarities in their sequence. In this digital age, proteins are represented as a string of alphabetic letters, which can be analyzed using computer programs. The research was aimed at developing and optimizing computer-based techniques to find new members of a protein family, and to find common features of protein families. In particular, the studies investigated protein families shown to be important in the biology of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, with a view to providing new knowledge as foundation to develop new means to prevent life-threatening infections.