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IMAGE: By slightly adjusting an enzyme s amino acids, it can live in completely different environments. view more
Credit: Dr Ulrike Kappler
Just a few changes to an enzyme s amino acids can be enough to dramatically change its function, enabling microbes to inhabit wildly different environments.
University of Queensland microbiologist Associate Professor Ulrike Kappler, led by an international team of researchers, made this discovery when investigating how Haemophilus influenzae bacteria colonise the human respiratory system. This disease-causing bacterium is supremely adapted to living in humans, so much so that they cannot survive anywhere else, Dr Kappler said. It turns out that one enzyme, MtsZ, is the key player in this adaptation.