A new way of fighting bacteria?
In bacteria, toxin-antitoxin systems consist of a set of two closely linked genes. Situated on the same chromosome, they encode both a protein 'poison' and a counteracting 'antidote'. Under normal conditions, the antitoxin protein binds the toxin protein and prevents it from acting. But in response to environmental stress, the antitoxin proteins are broken down, which allows the toxins to poison the cells. Microbiologists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, studied the toxin-antitoxin system HigBA, which can be found in many pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria, and found a novel regulatory mechanism. When acting on the toxin, this mechanism works like a "suicide button" that kills the cell. This discovery could open the door to potential new treatments of bacterial infections. The results is published in Nature Microbiology.