Tiny modification, big hope for new antibiotics

Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University participated in a study published in the prestigious Cell Reports journal demonstrating how epigenetic modification in the tRNA allows it flexibility in reading the genetic code. The researchers revealed, in the bacteria Escherichia coli, that due to epigenetic modification in tRNA, called methylation, this tRNA is able to recognize a proline amino acid codon even when there isn't a perfect match with the genetic code. Without the methylation, tRNA loses this ability, and if the bacteria don't have other tRNA molecules that recognize proline codons perfectly, they fail to synthesize proteins and die. Many bacteria, including bacterial pathogens that pose a serious threat to human health, use the methylated tRNA to recognize different codons of the amino acid proline, and don't have additional tRNAs. In an era where there is a growing fear of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, targeting these tRNA biosynthesis pathways remains a high priority for the development of innovative antibiotics.

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