A team of researchers at the University of Illinois led by professor Wilfred van der Donk and professor Satish K. Nair have solved a 25 year old riddle on how a specific type of natural antibiotic molecule is formed. They focused on a class of compounds that have antibiotic properties, a common one studied was Nisin.

Nisin is naturally occurring in milk and has been used as a combatant for food borne pathogens since the 1960s. The sequence of the gene has been known to researchers, but after the peptide is formed it undergoes changes to give it the final form. This is a five ringed structure in which two rings disrupt the creation of bacteria’s cell walls and the remaining three destroy the bacteria’s membranes.

The mystery lay in how the peptide which is like a noodle gets shaped into the final form. The researchers established that  the amino acid glutamate was essential to nisin’s transformation. The dehydratase held the peptide and allowed the ring structures to be established. Then the newly formed molecule was hardened into place to hold the new shape.

The researchers were able to throw light on a problem that can now have many practical uses. This is a useful science project to producers of medicine.