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| Salmonella |
Vienna. bacteria like salmonella infect their host cells via needle-like extensions, which they build in an attack in large numbers. With newly developed methods cryo-electron microscopy were at Vienna researcher Thomas Marlovits the structure of this infection apparatus dissolve in almost atomic level. Knowledge of the exact blueprint to help in the development of drugs that inhibit the infection.
"Open Sesame" for bacteria
plague, typhoid, cholera - some of the most devastating diseases are caused by bacteria, which have one thing in common: they have an effective infection apparatus that is almost unbeatable as a weapon. Infestation of a body cell, they build on a number of hollow needle-like structures that protrude from the bacterial envelope. Through these needles to inject signal substances into the host cells and reprogram them overcome their defenses. Henceforth, the pathogens can have an easy job and freely enter in large numbers in the cells. The biochemist and biophysicist Thomas Marlovits, group leader at the IMP Vienna Institute (Research Institute of Molecular Pathology) and IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), has been working several years with the complex of Salmonella infection. Already in 2006, he was able to describe how the structure of the needle complex of Salmonella typhimurium is the right (Nature 441, 637-640). Well, he succeeded and his Ph.D. student Oliver Schraidt, the three-dimensional present structure in extremely high resolution. The team was able to detail with dimensions of 5-6 angstroms visible - these are nearly atomic scales. The work is presented in the current issue of Science magazine.
seen, so destroyed
Never before has the tool of salmonella infection presented with such precision. This was achieved through the combined use of high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy and specially developed imaging software. The "coolest Austria microscope" allows you to freeze biological samples sent shock at minus 196 degrees and to consider in this state, largely unaltered. However, scientists have struggled with the increasingly "zoom in" on her property with a treacherous issue: the high-energy electron beam is so focused on the sample that this is the first image also destroyed again. The Viennese researchers solved the problem with image-processing algorithms and with the sheer mass of images. They analyzed some 37 000 images of isolated needle complexes. Similar images were combined and calculated together, so can be of numerous, very noisy images, a single, sharp three-dimensional image generated. The enormous computing power provided by a cluster of about 500 interconnected computers.
more: idw (source)
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