A longstanding mystery in the anaerobic bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, one of the deadliest foodborne pathogens, is the conflict between its broken oxygen-dependent cellular respiration cycle and its dependence on oxygen for intracellular replication. In fact, many other anaerobic bacteria can utilize alternative electron transfer mechanisms to survive in the absence of oxygen. We investigated the mechanisms behind such a discrepancy and pinpointed an interesting chemical imbalance in the microbe in the absence of oxygen. The result was highlighted by the editors as one of the 90 spotlight papers out of the 2000 published that year. Our result points to a promising therapeutic strategy to mitigate infections by these anaerobic microbes.
To Breathe or Not to Breathe — The Secret of Anaerobic Pathogens
Light, S. et al. PNAS (2019). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915678116