Photo: Universität Hamburg and Paternoga The antibiotic tetracycline (blue) and its interactions with ribosomal rRNA (gray), which are mediated by direct (orange) or indirect (cyan) interactions via Mg1 (green) or water molecules (red)
Photo: Universität Hamburg and Paternoga The antibiotic tetracycline ( blue ) and its interactions with ribosomal rRNA (gray), which are mediated by direct ( orange ) or indirect ( cyan ) interactions via Mg1 ( green ) or water molecules ( red ) - A European research team led by the Department of Chemistry at Universität Hamburg presents a study showing high-resolution structures of 17 distinct antibiotic ribosomal compounds. The knowledge could pave the way for the development of new antibiotics to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria. The results were published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Ribosomes are large molecular complexes found in plant, animal, human, and bacterial cells that produce proteins. They are important targets for antibiotics, and, in bacteria, the antibiotics bind to a subunit of the ribosomes and cause reading errors or even reading stops. This results in the formation of defective proteins that lose their biological function, and the bacteria then die. However, an increasing number of multidrug-resistant bacteria can prevent antibiotics from working.
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