Bacteria pack their own demise( Brussels - Numerous pathogens contai...)

Brussels - Numerous pathogens contain an 'internal time bomb', a deadly mechanism that can be used against them. After years of work, VIB researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) were able to determine the structure and operating mechanism of the proteins involved. This clears the road for finding ways to set the clock on this internal time bomb and, hopefully, in the process developing a new class of antibiotics. The research was accepted for publication by top journal Molecular Cell, with congratulations from the editorial board.

It's in the genes

For years, Nathalie De Jonge, Remy Loris and their colleagues of the VIB Department of Molecular and Cellular Interactions at VUB, have applied their relentless dedication to the study of the precise structure and function of the toxin-antitoxin complex, a system that had not been the focus of much interest in the past. Only in the last couple of years the rest of the scientific world come to realize its importance and as a result the number of papers in this field has exploded.

All living creatures, people as well as bacteria, store their genetic information in the same way, i.e. in the DNA. Every human cell contains 46 neatly folded DNA strands that together measure two meters, while bacteria have to make do with around one millimetre of DNA. A piece of DNA containing the recipe for one characteristic, such as "how to make citric acid" or "how to make hair curl," is called a gene. Humans have several tens of thousands of genes.

Toxin and antitoxin

If your genetic information becomes damaged, you have a good chance of becoming ill or even dying. This is also true for bacteria, which over time developed a handy way of providing extra protection to important genes the toxin-antitoxin (T-A) system. These T-A genes are tucked in near the genes to be protected. T-A genes contain instructions for both a toxin and its antitoxin. As long as the cell is prod
'/>"/>