A team of Israeli researchers has discovered a new group of bacterial toxins that can kill harmful bacteria and fungi without harming other organisms, an advance that can help fight infections, especially as antibiotic resistance becomes a growing concern.The study published in Nature Microbiology on Tuesday found the toxins in more than 1,00,000 microbial genomes.
It revealed how some bacteria use these toxins to compete with other microbes.
The team led by Asaf Levy from the Institute of Environmental Science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem developed an innovative computational approach to identify previously undiscovered toxin protein domains, within over 105,000 microbial genomes.
These protein toxins, referred to as polymorphic toxins, play a crucial role in microbial warfare, targeting and killing competing microorganisms in different ecosystems, said the researchers.
In the study, nine newly discovered toxins were validated.
Each represented a large evolutionary conserved family and showed their ability to kill both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The team also found five immunity genes, which protected the bacteria producing the toxins from self-destruction.
The toxins demonstrated powerful anti-fungal activity against a range of pathogenic fungi.
At the same time, it spared invertebrate species and macrophages.
“Our findings expand our understanding of how bacteria use toxins in competition with other microbes and provide exciting avenues for future research into critically needed antimicrobial agents against human and plant bacterial and fungal pathogens,” said Levy.