If scientists can discover how disease-causing bacteria do that then it they might be able to create drugs that could turn the genes off that make the bacteria infectious rendering.
Such a discovery could render E. coli harmless and would be good news in light of the recent outbreak in spinach that sickened and killed people.
The process of turning on, or activating, genes - is controlled by proteins. Those proteins are called transcription factors.
While every type of known bacteria contains the transcription factor NusG, at some point it was defectively copied and there is now another factor called RfaH, which is usually inactive. But when active it turns on the infectious properties of bacteria.
Researchers discovered that two-thirds of the structure of RfaH looks like NusG but the other one-third is different. The researchers say that this study likely marks the first successful attempt by a laboratory to determine the structure of RfaH.
Bacteria are microscopic single cell organisms that don't have a membrane-bounded nucleus. Many bacteria can form a single spore when their food supply is low. After forming a spore most of the water is removed from the organism and its metabolism stops allowing it to remain dormant under adverse temperatures and remain viable for up to 50 years after becoming dormant, scientists say.
The study is published in the April 13 issue of the journal Molecular Cell.
