Finding priority bacterial ribosomes for future structural and antimicrobial research based upon global RNA and...

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Structural Biology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Ribosome-targeting antibiotics are crucial, but their binding sites are mainly studied in non-pathogenic bacteria.
• Existing ribosome structures from species like *Escherichia coli* may not represent the full diversity of bacterial ribosomes, especially in pathogens.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the diversity of bacterial ribosome structures, particularly in pathogenic species.
• To assess the adequacy of current non-pathogenic ribosome structures as models for understanding antibiotic binding sites.

Main Methods:

• Utilized high-accuracy covariance and hidden Markov models for annotating ribosomal RNA and protein sequences from genomic data.
• Employed phylogenetic methods to analyze ribosomal sequence diversity across various bacterial taxa.

Main Results:

• Identified significant species-specific differences in ribosome structures among pathogenic bacteria.
• Demonstrated that current non-pathogenic ribosome structures are inadequate representations for certain pathogens, including *Campylobacter pylori*, and entire phyla like Bacteroidota.

Conclusions:

• The structural diversity of bacterial ribosomes is greater than currently represented by non-pathogenic models.
• Further research on pathogenic bacterial ribosome structures is essential for advancing antibiotic discovery and combating resistance.