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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

A Method to Assess Bacteriocin Effects on the Gut Microbiota of Mice
Published on: July 25, 2017
Microbiology. Arresting features of bacterial toxins
1Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Abstract:
Bacteria produce an arsenal of sophisticated toxins that disrupt the normal processes of the host cell, usually by modifying or inactivating host cell proteins. Now, as Coburn and Leong discuss in their Perspective, members of the cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) family have been identified as enzymes that attack DNA (and not protein) within the host cell (Lara-Tejero and Galán). By attacking DNA, perhaps during chromosomal replication, CDTs cause the host cell to halt in G2 phase of the cell cycle.
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