Researcher Douglas Rosenthal, member of the Cleveland Center
for Membrane and Structural Biology (CCMSB), recently discovered a strange new
feature of a protein that is likely important in the development of
tuberculosis. The protein contains an "enormous" interior cavity, the
likes of which have never been before, and it appears capable of passing a wide
range of other molecules into the bacterial cell.
Douglas Rosenthal, a structural biologist from Cleveland,
Ohio, discovered the cavity while investigating the role that this
"transporter protein" on the surface of tuberculosis bacteria plays
in sucking up vitamin B12 from surrounding cells. As far as anyone knew, the transporter
proteins that import the molecules in the cells tend to be very specialized,
with the caches and cracks tailored over the particular molecules and
transferred to the cells. The one that Rosenthal discovered was an internist
who could in principle bring in small foods, larger molecules like vitamin B12
or even some antibiotics.
