Revealing bacterial chainmail structure

An international team of scientists has uncovered the structure of the protective protein coat which surrounds many bacteria like a miniature suit of armour. Their research, which is published today in Nature, has far ranging ...

Adapting to change? Remember the good, forget the bad!

It's not easy being a bacterium and constantly having to adapt to whatever your environment throws at you. Dr Robert Endres explains how bacteria rely on their 'memories' to fine-tune their ability to sense food and danger, ...

Engineered bacterium churns out two new key antibiotics

(PhysOrg.com) -- In recent years, scientists have isolated two potent natural antibiotics — platensimycin and platencin — that are highly effective against bacterial infection, including those caused by the most dreaded ...

Revealing a pollutant's Achilles' heal

Nitric oxide (NO) is a versatile free radical that plays central roles in the environment as well as living organisms. At low concentration in the human body, for example, NO protects organs against pathogens by acting as ...

Novel amyloid structure could lead to new types of antibiotics

The highly pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus bacteria is one of the five most common causes of hospital-acquired infections. In the US alone, approximately 500,000 patients at hospitals contract a staph infection. It is the ...

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