PMID: 28068312

Authors:

Hakulinen JK, Hering J, Branden G, Chen H, Snijder A, Ek M, Johansson P

Title:

MraY-antibiotic complex reveals details of tunicamycin mode of action.

Journal:

Nat Chem Biol. 2017 Jan 9. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2270.

Abstract:

The rapid increase of antibiotic resistance has created an urgent need to develop novel antimicrobial agents. Here we describe the crystal structure of the promising bacterial target phospho-N-acetylmuramoyl-pentapeptide translocase (MraY) in complex with the nucleoside antibiotic tunicamycin. The structure not only reveals the mode of action of several related natural-product antibiotics but also gives an indication on the binding mode of the MraY UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide and undecaprenyl-phosphate substrates.