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Microbiology

A triclosan-resistant bacterial enzyme

An Erratum to this article was published on 24 August 2000

Abstract

Triclosan is an antimicrobial agent that is widely used in a variety of consumer products and acts by inhibiting one of the highly conserved enzymes (enoyl-ACP reductase, or FabI) of bacterial fatty-acid biosynthesis. But several key pathogenic bacteria do not possess FabI, and here we describe a unique triclosan-resistant flavoprotein, FabK, that can also catalyse this reaction in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Our finding has implications for the development of FabI-specific inhibitors as antibacterial agents.

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Figure 1: FabK is an enoyl-ACP reductase.

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Correspondence to Charles O. Rock.

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Heath, R., Rock, C. A triclosan-resistant bacterial enzyme. Nature 406, 145–146 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35018162

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