Research Team Uncovers Mechanism Of Action For Pore-Forming Bacterial Toxins

The findings could help combat associated diseases and advance crop protection.

- EP News Bureau ​​​​​​

PORE-FORMING toxins are common bacterial poisons. They attack organisms by introducing holes in cell membranes. A team of scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now unravelled the mechanism of action for one of these toxins. The findings could help combat associated diseases and advance crop protection.

Pore-forming toxins are bacterial poisons that destroy cells by creating holes in the cell membranes. Many bacterial pathogens produce such toxins, including, for example, some strains of the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli as well as Yersinia enterolitica, a pathogen related to the plague. They attack all kinds of organisms with the help of their toxins – from plants to insects, and even humans.

Scientists all over the world are trying to understand how these toxins produce the fatal openings in cell membranes in hope of one day inhibiting the pathogenic, pore-forming poisons.