Novel Antibiotics May Result from Bacterial Cell Wall Study
May 06, 2020 | Biotechnology
Reading time: 2-3 minutes
Lab.Equipment has curated a new article from the Bio Tech industry for you. This one is published by Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN):
Scientists from the University of Leeds say they have identified a key process in the way bacteria protect themselves from attack and that their finding heralds a potential new strategy in the hunt for antibiotics.
The researchers pieced together how bacteria build their outer, defensive wall. The team focused on the gram-negative bacteria E. coli, but the process they have discovered is shared by many pathogenic gram-negative bacteria so it could have importance for tackling other gram-negative pathogens, including the top three on the World Health Organization’s list of priority pathogens.
The study “Inter-domain dynamics in the chaperone SurA and multi-site binding to its outer membrane protein clients” appears in Nature Communications.
“The periplasmic chaperone SurA plays a key role in outer membrane protein (OMP) biogenesis. E. coli SurA comprises a core domain and two peptidylprolyl isomerase domains (P1 and P2), but its mechanisms of client binding and chaperone function have remained unclear. Here, we use chemical cross-linking, hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, single-molecule FRET and molecular dynamics simulations to map the client binding site(s) on SurA and interrogate the role of conformational dynamics in OMP recognition,” write the investigators.
“We demonstrate that SurA samples an array of conformations in solution in which P2 primarily lies closer to the core/P1 domains than suggested in the SurA crystal structure. OMP binding sites are located primarily in the core domain, and OMP binding results in conformational changes between the core/P1 domains.”
“Together, the results suggest that unfolded OMP substrates bind in a cradle formed between the SurA domains, with structural flexibility between domains assisting OMP recognition, binding and release.”
Antonio Calabrese, PhD, University Academic Fellow in... Want to read more? Read the whole article in the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN) Blog.
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