There are several exciting results derived from this grant that are clearly beyond the state of the art:
1. The first scientific breakthrough has revealed a new way that bacteria evolves, thought to be at least 1,000 times more efficient than currently known mechanisms. The insights will help scientists to better understand how superbugs can rapidly evolve and become increasingly antibiotic resistant. This new process has been named Lateral Transduction, and now joins the two known methods of transduction: general and specialised transduction, both discovered by the American scientist Joshua Lederberg, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with bacteria. Working with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, we have been able to demonstrate that this new naturally occurring method of transduction was at least one thousand times more efficient than generalised transduction, the best currently known method. Due to the efficiency of lateral transduction, we hypothesise it is likely to be the most impactful type of transduction to occur in bacteria during its evolutionary process.
2. The second important result is the confirmation, using eukaryotic models, that the DUT enzymes are signalling molecules. Using Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania mexicana as model organisms, the results already obtained in this grant propose that DUTs are also important signalling molecules in eukaryotes, acting as cellular regulators. This investigation is important, as it identifies a new and universal family of signalling proteins in eukaryotes, revealing their mechanism of action. Further confirmation of this hypothesis will have broad and substantial implications for biology. Further, since this enzyme is encoded by most human and animal pathogens, an understanding of the molecular basis involving DUTs in signalling, including the identification and characterisation of the cellular pathways controlled by these enzymes, may lead to the design of new approaches to control relevant infectious diseases.
