Antibiotic resistance and the appearance of new virulent bacterial strains constitute a major threat to human health. The problem is aggravated by the transfer of resistance and virulence genes between bacteria (horizontal gene transfer). In this context, a detailed knowledge of the mechanisms allowing bacteria to tolerate the acquisition of foreign DNA is lacking and it may open the way to new sustainable strategies to fight infectious diseases infectious diseases.

Here we describe a structural model for the complex between Hha and H-NS proteins which selective represses genes in Enterobacteria acquired by horizontal transfer. We found a charge zipper formed by interdigitation of residues from three proteins stabilizes the complex. Charge zippers provide selectivity to electrostatic protein complexes and understanding selective gene silencing may help fighting antibiotic resistance

New publication: "A Three-protein Charge Zipper Stabilizes a Complex Modulating Bacterial Gene Silencing"
Authors: Tiago N. Cordeiro, Jesús García, Pau Bernadó, Oscar Millet et Miquel Pons
Journal: Biol Chem. 2015 Aug 28;290(35):21200-12
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