Researchers take early step towards devising new antibiotics

Researchers take early step towards devising new antibiotics. Scientists reveal the structure of a protein that infects and kills bacteria %0A " - Researchers have made the first step towards creating a new class of antibiotics in a study published last night in the journal . The scientists, from Imperial College London, have revealed the structure of a protein called Gp2. This protein is produced by the T7 virus, which only targets bacteria and which infects and kills them by interfering with the way in which they express genes. Gp2 works by interfering with an essential enzyme in bacteria called the RNA Polymerase, which represents the central machinery that enables information contained in their genes to be "read". If the RNA Polymerase is unable to function, the bacteria cannot survive. Today's is the first study to show the shape of a protein that is able to strongly inhibit RNA Polymerase and is derived from a virus.