Research team determines structural basis underlying metabolic
survival technique PORTLAND, Ore. – A discovery at Oregon Health
& Science University is giving researchers detailed, visual
clues into how gram-positive bacteria, including those that
cause life-threatening diseases, can stay alive in adverse
environmental conditions. The findings, published recently in
the journal Cell, could someday lead to the development of a new
class of drugs that disrupt a crucial mechanism that bacteria
use to adapt to available energy sources, and essentially starve
these pathogens to death. Using X-ray crystallography to examine
the three-dimensional structure of proteins in atomic-level
detail, scientists in the Department of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology, OHSU School of Medicine, uncovered the
mechanism behind the ability of "gram-positive" bacteria to
switch their metabolic programs to take advantage of the best-
available carbon source for energy. Gram-positive bacteria
include those that cause staph infections,