Scientists at the Severinov Laboratory in Skoltech and their colleagues from Russia and the US have uncovered a new mechanism of bacterial self-defense against microcin C, a potent antibiotic weapon in the microscopic world that can sometimes turn on its master.
Scientists at the Severinov Laboratory in Skoltech and their colleagues from Russia and the US have uncovered a new mechanism of bacterial self-defense against microcin C, a potent antibiotic weapon in the microscopic world that can sometimes turn on its master. The study was published in the journal mBio.
Microcin C is a peptide-nucleotide antibiotic produced by some strains of Escherichia coli. It is essentially a Trojan horse: its peptide part helps it get into a cell, where the cell’s own internal machinery turns it into what’s called “processed McC”. This compound completely blocks protein biosynthesis by interfering with its crucial component, aspartyl-tRNA synthetase.
Unfortunately for the microcin C producer, some of the “Greeks” in this metaphor inevitably escape from the “horse” too early, while it is still inside the producing cell, which leads to self-intoxication. That is why the producing cell has to get creative in developing defenses against its own weapon; one of these defenses is an enzyme that acetylates processed McC, rendering it useless.
Skoltech PhD student Eldar Yagmurov and his colleagues have found another way cells can protect themselves — histidine-triad (HIT) superfamily hydrolases (that is, enzymes that break a larger molecule into smaller ones using water).
Read more at Skolkovo Institute Of Science And Technology (Skoltech)
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
