Some bacteria produce toxins that enable them to adapt to different stresses or other attacks from the immune system. Xibing Xu and Xue Han from Pierre Genevaux team (LMGM-CBI), their collaborators at LMGM-CBI, Roland Barriot and Peter Redder, and their external collaborators at the IPBS and the Durham university (UK), have discovered a new toxin that blocks protein synthesis by inhibiting the maturation of transfer RNA in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis.
The study, published in Nature Communications, also identified the mechanism by which the toxin is inhibited by a new family of antidotes.
Figure : Inhibition de la toxine MenT1 par fixation asymétrique de l’antitoxine MenA1. Structure cristalline du complexe toxine-antitoxine MenT1α:MenA1:MenT1β chez Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
© Xibing Xu et Pierre Genevaux
More information:
MenT nucleotidyltransferase toxins extend tRNA acceptor stems and can be inhibited by asymmetrical antitoxin binding
Xu X, Usher B, Gutierrez C, Barriot R, Arrowsmith TJ, Han X, Redder P, Neyrolles O, Blower TR, Genevaux P., Nat Commun. 2023 Aug. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40264-3.
Contact : Pierre Genevaux