EzrA regulates the polymerization of FtsZ, a tubulin-like protein and main component of the Z-ring, which drives cell division in bacteria. Here the authors describe the crystal structure of EzrA ...

Textbook images show peptidoglycan as straight and ordered. The biopolymer peptidoglycan that makes up bacterial cell walls was always assumed to be highly ordered. Textbook images like the one below ...

Structural and biochemical studies of the bacterial NAD-decapping enzyme, NudC, in complex with NAD or its cleavage product NMN reveal the critical residues for substrate recognition and the ...

Using mutant bacteria to study how changes in membrane proteins affect cell functions Fluctuations in phospholipid composition can cause changes in membrane protein function, providing a ...

Clusters of a toxic bacterial protein have a surprising structure, differing from similar clumps associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in humans, scientists report in the Feb. 24 Science ...

Bacteria use calcium not only in governing the transition to a biofilm, but in movement, maintaining cell structure and in infection. Christian Meyer, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of ...

Additionally, our study raises the question of whether other immune cells use similar mechanisms to sense microbial metabolites, and whether other bacterial byproducts might serve as immune signals.

A transporter which some bacteria use to recycle fragments of their cell wall has been discovered. Researchers found that the transporter controls resistance to certain kinds of cell-wall ...