Talk:Phenol-soluble modulin

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2019 and 5 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mw064216.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 02:18, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Science Writing Class Assignment Edits Summary
Added structure for page consisting of and introduction to PSMs, including background and prevalence in Staphylococcal species, Structure and location on the genome of the 6 identified PSMs, a section on regulation of the PSMs, and a section for their various functions. This should make further edits to the article easier. Expanded upon the introduction from the original article to correct some incomplete information as well as introduce some functions of PSMs. Included the prevalence in the two most well studied Staphylococcal species, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, including what PSMs were encoded by which organism. Included basic information about the structure of each PSM. However, the literature is heavily focused on PSMα and PSMβ as these are the most clinically relevant. Information about other PSMs is limited. I intended to include a picture to demonstrate the structure of the PSMs. However, structural information is mostly in the form of NMR data and is copywritten in a way that makes the images not suitable for Wikipedia. This was also the case for other diagrams, and I was unable to find a useful image that I could include. I also included a segment about PSM regulation. However, regulation of Staphylococcal virulence is very complex, while many studies have demonstrated an effect is observed, the mechanism by which it is carried out are poorly understood. I included a section to describe the various functions of PSMs. Once again, the literature is primarily on S. aureus and PSMα 1-4 as they are the most clinically relevant. I included more references relying primarily on 2 key reviews of PSMs, while also including some primary literature that have established links between specific proteins and PSMs. The reviews were consistent with one another and one is from a well-respected researcher in the field. Some aspects that I would have liked to include, such as PSMs being the main toxin for human erythrocyte lysis, I chose to omit and instead include a broader concept, such as PSMs having cytolytic activity in general, I feel this made the article more accessible to the general population. In addition, I feel sticking to broader ideas and functions keeps the article from being too confusing, due again to the complexity of Staphylococcal virulence. The original information on the article has been moved to its respective sections and has been mostly preserved with the exception of inaccurate or false information.

Mw064216 (talk) 05:12, 21 November 2019 (UTC)