Control antibacterial proteins

This communication reports studies on the humoral antibacterial response in Drosophila and Ceratitis capitata, the Mediterranean fruit fly. The goal of our work is to understand the molecular mechanisms that protect flies from bacterial infection. Here we examine three questions 1) What genes encode antibacterial proteins 2) Does the antibacterial response involve the accumulation of new messenger RNAs And 3), what genes are necessary to survive a bacterial attack Answers to these questions will help us to determine the potential of blocking the immune system to control populations of insect pests. 

The results of these experiments 1) provide genetic variants for genes that control the structure of antibacterial proteins 2) show that specific RNAs accumulate after a bacterial infection and 3)... 

Deformylation of nascent polypeptides has been shown to be a function essential for growth in E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae [15-18]. Moreover, antibacterial mode of action studies, using S. pneumoniae or S. aureus strains in which the expression of PDF is controlled by regulatable promoters, have shown that the antibacterial activity of PDF inhibitors is due to their inhibition of the PDF enzyme, as the susceptibility of the strains to these compounds is dependent on the amount of protein present in the cell [19-21]. These results further validate PDF as a target for novel antibiotics. 

In the mouth, mineralization is controlled partly by proteins such as statherin from the salivary gland, which maintains a supersaturation of calcium and phosphate in the mouth. The basic mineral in tooth enamel is hydroxyapatite, in which it is possible to substitute Sr(II) for Ca(II), and F for OH isomorphously, hence the use of strontium and fluoride salts in toothpastes, said to confer extra strength to the enamel and antibacterial properties. 

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