As the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is increasing, scientists are focusing more on the protein complex on the outer envelope of bacterial cells called the Type IV secretion system (T4SS), which enables bacteria to exchange DNA with nearby bacteria and resist antibiotics.

For the first time, researchers could decipher the T4SS complex′s three-dimensional structure, giving them a blueprint that may be used to develop drugs that would delay the emergence of antibiotic resistance. They determined the structure of T4SS using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), a technique that freezes proteins and uses electron beams to produce high-resolution microscopic pictures. T4SS protein sequences from various bacteria were analyzed using statistics and machine learning to make structure predictions, which were then compared to the cryo-EM data.

The findings contribute to developing drugs that could delay the spread of antibiotic-resistance genes and also demonstrate the power of contemporary computational methods to validate experimental results and provide functional insights beyond the scope of currently available experimental data. The study was published in Nature.

(Hindustan Times, Aug 19, 2022)

https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/health/structure-of-key-player-in-antibiotic-resistance-study-101660900925452.html