Designing a Secreted Bacterial WapA Toxin with 100% Activity

This project aims to design a secreted bacterial toxin, WapA, with 100 percent activity. When expressed in Bacillus subtilis, WapA can inactivate itself by binding to the bacteria, which limits its ability to be used in research. To maximize activity, WapA will be expressed in insect cells, which it cannot bind to, and its activity will be determined by measuring its effects on bacterial growth. This project will provide a uniform source of active WapA to be used for future experiments, which will improve the understanding of its structure and function, and may inform future research to engineer antibacterial proteins.