Proteins enable essential enzyme to maintain its grip on DNA

Scientists have identified a family of proteins that close a critical gap in an enzyme that is essential to all life, allowing the enzyme to maintain its grip on DNA and start the activation of genes.

Frozen chemistry controls bacterial infections

Chemists and molecular biologists have made an unexpected discovery in infection biology. The researchers can now show that two proteins that bind to one another slow down a chemical reaction central to the course of the ...

FIC proteins send bacteria into hibernation

Bacteria do not cease to amaze us with their survival strategies. A research team from the University of Basel's Biozentrum has now discovered how bacteria enter a sleep mode using a so-called FIC toxin. In the current issue ...

How Salmonella survives the macrophage's acid attack

Macrophages destroy bacteria by engulfing them in intracellular compartments, which they then acidify to kill or neutralize the bacteria. However, some pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella enterica, have evolved to exist ...

Nasty nanoinjectors pose a new target for antibiotic research

If you've ever suffered the misery of food poisoning from a bacterium like Shigella or Salmonella, then your cells have been on the receiving end of "nanoinjectors"—microscopic spikes made from proteins through which pathogens ...

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