Purified phage lysins present an alternative to traditional antibiotics and work by hydrolysing peptidoglycan. Phage lysins have been developed against Gram-positive pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis and Streptococcus pneumoniae, where the peptidoglycan layer is exposed on the cell surface. Addition of the lysin to a bacterial culture results in rapid death of the organism. Gram-negative bacteria are resistant to phage lysins because they contain an outer membrane that protects the peptidoglycan from degradation. We solved crystal structures of a Yersinia pestis outer-membrane protein and the bacteriocin that targets it, which informed engineering of a bacterial–phage hybrid lysin that can be transported across the outer membrane to kill specific Gram-negative bacteria. This work provides a template for engineering phage lysins against a wide variety of bacterial pathogens.
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December 2012
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Conference Article|
November 21 2012
Using a bacteriocin structure to engineer a phage lysin that targets Yersinia pestis
Petra Lukacik
;
Petra Lukacik
1National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, U.S.A.
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Travis J. Barnard
;
Travis J. Barnard
1National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, U.S.A.
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Susan K. Buchanan
Susan K. Buchanan
1
1National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, U.S.A.
1To whom correspondence should be addressed (emailskbuchan@helix.nih.gov).
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Biochem Soc Trans (2012) 40 (6): 1503–1506.
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Received:
August 21 2012
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Petra Lukacik, Travis J. Barnard, Susan K. Buchanan; Using a bacteriocin structure to engineer a phage lysin that targets Yersinia pestis. Biochem Soc Trans 1 December 2012; 40 (6): 1503–1506. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20120209
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