( g said Ebright. For all major bacter...)Nanotech tools yield DNA transcription breakthrough

In addition, bacterial pathogens that may be used in bioterrorism can be engineered, and, in the former Soviet Union, were intentionally engineered to be resistant to current antibiotics.

Ebright explained that his laboratory at Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology has two parts: One part seeks a fundamental understanding of the machine; the other uses that understanding to develop new classes of antibacterial agents that function by inhibiting the bacterial version of the machine. "There is a direct information flow from our basic research to our applied research," he said. "Our basic research identifies new vulnerabilities within the bacterial version of the machine; our applied research exploits those vulnerabilities."

One of the studies reported in Science was conducted by Ebright's laboratory in conjunction with Shimon Weiss' laboratory at the California NanoSystems Institute of the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). The study by the Rutgers/UCLA team used single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy. The researchers attached pairs of fluorescent "tags" to key structural elements of the machine and then monitored changes in distance between tags in single molecules as transcription occurred. The researchers showed that, during initial transcription, the machine does not move to reach adjacent DNA segments; nor does it stretch to reach adjacent DNA segments (as had been proposed two decades ago in models termed "transient excursions" and "inchworming"). Instead, the researchers showed that the machine remains stationary and pulls adjacent DNA segments into itself.

"The study of molecular machines and the dynamics of their moving parts hold great interest for nanotechnologists," said Weiss, leader of the UCLA group. "Beyond furthering the understanding o
'"/>

Source:Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey