Bacterial Toxin Kills Cells By Preventing Their DNA From Replicating

In an article from ScienceDaily, researchers at Vanderbilt University finally  came to an understanding as to how the bacterial toxin, yatakemycin (YTM) functioned. It is made from the soil bacteria, specifically the Streptomyces family. Although what is found to be interesting, is that the toxicity of the bacteria is potent against tumor cells. How YTM works is by attaching to the DNA with a single covalent bond and weaker polar interactions. Therefore, making it harder to find with nucleotide excision repair (NER) enzymes because of it stabilizing the DNA. Streptomyces bacterial developed a very unique emzyme that works as base excision repair enzyme(BER) which fixes tiny lesions and these enzymes are called DNA glycosylase.