South KoreaGlucose metabolism makes hospital superbug Acinetobacter baumannii shed membrane vesicles.
Those vesicles carried the resistance enzyme Bla and the cell-clumping adhesin Ata.
Strains that oxidise glucose acidify their surroundings, which stresses the cell envelope and boosts vesicle release.
The abstract reports only laboratory experiments, with no animal or patient testing.
The accepted version in Communications Biology will be replaced by a final version of record.
How each outlet framed it
- Nature
- identifies glucose oxidation as metabolic trigger for acidification and vesiculation, maps molecular pathway via PQQ-dependent dehydrogenase and periplasmic protein accumulation
Sources: Nature