Researchers reveal the mechanisms behind a natural bacteria killer

A UCLA-led team of researchers has described how a nanomachine produced by a common bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, recognizes and kills other bacteria, and has imaged the nanomachine at atomic resolution. The nanomachine is a protein complex, called a pyocin, released by P. aeruginosa as a way of sabotaging microbes that compete with it for resources. When a pyocin identifies a rival bacterium, it kills it by punching a hole in its cell membrane. The scientists also engineered their own versions of the nanomachine, which could eventually lead to new types of antibiotics that would home in on specific species of microbes.