Cholera can be a deadly problem for children in third world countries. Epidemic outbreaks in the past have involved changes to the pilin protein, now structurally characterized by Scripps researchers.

The secondary structure annotation was generated in the template of HSV-1 gB. Identical residues are shown as white symbols on red background, and similar residues are shown as red symbols.

Using chitinase, a protein known to be secreted by V. cholerae by the same mechanism as cholera toxin, the researchers engineered a series of insertions, deletions and mutations in its amino-acid ...