Chronic bacterial biofilms place a massive burden on healthcare due to the presence of antibiotic-tolerant dormant bacteria. Some of the conventional antibiotics such as erythromycin, vancomycin, linezolid, rifampicin etc. are inherently ineffective against Gram-negative bacteria, particularly in their biofilms. Here, we report membrane-active macromolecules that kill slow dividing stationary-p...

The effect of different solvents and pollutants on the cellular fatty acid composition of three bacterial strains: Thauera aromatica, Geobacter sulfurreducens and Desulfococcus multivorans, representatives of diverse predominant anaerobic metabolisms was investigated. As the prevailing adaptive mechanism in cells of T. aromatica and G. sulfurreducens whose cellular fatty acids patterns were dom...

Tail-anchored membrane proteins (TAMPs), a class of proteins characterized by their lack of N-terminal signal sequence and Sec-independent membrane targeting, play critical roles in apoptosis, vesicle trafficking and other vital processes in eukaryotic organisms. Until recently, this class of membrane proteins has been unknown in bacteria. Here we present the results of bioinformatic analysis r...

Proteins in bacteria often deploy to particular places within the cell, but the cues for localization are frequently mysterious. We found that the peripheral membrane protein SpoVM (VM) recognizes a geometric cue when localizing to a particular membrane during sporulation in Bacillus subtilis. Sporulation involves an inner cell maturing into a spore and an outer cell nurturing the developing sp...

In the current work, in continuation of our recent research, we synthesized and studied new chimeric compounds, including ribosome-targeting antibiotic chloramphenicol (CHL) membrane-penetrating cation triphenylphosphonium (TPP), which are linked by alkyl groups different lengths. Using various biochemical assays, showed that these CAM-Cn-TPP compounds bind to bacterial ribosome, inhibit protei...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have remarkably different structures as well as biological activity profiles, whereupon most of these peptides are supposed to kill bacteria via membrane damage. In order to understand their molecular mechanism and target cell specificity for Gram-positive bacteria, it is essential to consider the architecture of their cell envelopes. Before AMPs can interact with ...

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) shed from bacteria contribute to pathogenesis by promoting colonization of host tissues and trafficking virulence factors into host cells via fusion with the host cell plasma membrane. Glyeraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is also secreted by prokaryotes, but enhances pathogenesis by promoting adhesion of bacteria to host cell surfaces. However, GAPDH is...

some wastes especially wastes of food industries need to be treated in order to recover some value-added products. one of these valuable products is biological pesticides. today, the most successful biological pesticides are produced by gram-positive, rod-shape bacteria, the genus bacillus that produces crystalline endotoxin proteins during spore formation. these toxins will be activated when t...

Biofilm formation on contact surfaces contributes to persistence of foodborne pathogens all along the food and feed chain. The specific physiological features of bacterial cells embedded in biofilms contribute to their high tolerance to environmental stresses, including the action of antimicrobial compounds. As membrane lipid adaptation is a vital facet of bacterial response when cells are subm...

The human pathogen Helicobacter pylori acquires cholesterol from membrane raft domains in eukaryotic cells, commonly known as "lipid rafts." Incorporation of this cholesterol into the H. pylori cell membrane allows the bacterium to avoid clearance by the host immune system and to resist the effects of antibiotics and antimicrobial peptides. The presence of cholesterol in H. pylori bacteria sugg...