Major Research Interests

The main focus of our group is to understand the link between sugar metabolism, cell wall biosynthesis and other processes impacting the cell integrity of the human pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. To this end, we are currently investigating the role of a putative sugar ABC transporter on growth, cell division, peptidoglycan biosynthesis and virulence of L. monocytogenes. Transcriptional regulators of the RpiR family are often involved in the control of sugar phosphate metabolic pathways. We want to study the importance of RpiR regulators encoded in the genome of L. monocytogenes for the sugar metabolism and other cellular processes.