PLoS patching: how diarrhea pathogens affect body temperature

January 21, 2020 / BIOON / -- many bacterial pathogens will discharge toxins immediately after entering the host to inhibit its immune response Recently, researchers at the University of rub in Bochum analyzed the molecular level mechanism when the diarrhoeal pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis turned into an attack mode To do this, they examined so-called RNA "thermometers," which signal bacteria whether they are in the host The authors also showed that bacteria with inactivated RNA thermometers could no longer cause infection The results were published in PLoS patterns Professor Franz narberhaus, chairman of Microbiology at rub, said: "we have learned from previous studies that Yersinia is very sensitive to temperature changes." RNA thermometers are responsible for temperature measurement They are part of a messenger RNA that contains many genes (image source: www Pixabay Com) at low temperature, that is, outside the host, RNA thermometers prevent RNA from being read and translated into proteins Only after successful infection with a warm blood host, at about 37 degrees Celsius, will the RNA structure melt They can then be written into proteins that are harmful to the host In the current study, scientists describe the potential melting mechanism of RNA thermometers against cnfy, one of the pseudoyersinia toxins Christian twittenhoff, the author of the paper, used cell components isolated from diarrhoea pathogens to show the putative structure of cnfy toxin RNA thermometers and the location of its melting Biologists created a model to record how the thermometer was turned on It also shows how ribosomes bind to messenger RNA The researchers further demonstrated the role of RNA thermometers in the process of disease They looked at mice infected with Yersinia bacteria, which have either normal RNA thermometers or inactivated RNA thermometers The results showed that the bacterial strain with RNA thermometer defect could not make mice sick Christian twittenhoff, lead author of the study, concluded: "the results suggest that this very short regulatory RNA sequence may be important for the successful infection process of bacteria." Source of information: how diarrhea pathogens switch into attack mode at body temperature source: Christian twittenhoff et al An RNA thermometer antennas production of a secret biological toxin, PLoS pathways (2020) Doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008184