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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How bacteria build a deadly toxin

Insights into an enzyme could yield new anaesthetics.
Two cells of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella

A lethal nerve agent called saxitoxin is produced by marine plankton (above) and freshwater bacteria. Credit: Donald Anderson

Scientists have revealed the first steps involved in a microbe’s synthesis of a potent nerve toxin. The advance could help to make the compound, saxitoxin, medically useful.

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Nature 554, 407 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02199-4

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