Researchers peer inside deadly pathogen's burglary kit

(Duke University) The bacterium that causes the tick-borne disease tularemia is a lean, mean infecting machine. It carries a relatively small genome, and a unique set of infectious tools, including a collection of chromosomal genes called 'the pathogenicity island.' Structural insights from Cryo-EM microscopy, appearing Nov. 19 in Molecular Cell, point to a way in which the bacterium's unique infectious machinery might be blocked.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news