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ANTIMICROBIALS

A radical way to die

Nature Microbiology volume 2, pages 1582–1583 (2017)Cite this article

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Recent work finds that reactive oxygen species are generated in cells starved for the nucleobase thymine and contribute to DNA-destructive “thymineless death” mechanisms, which underlie the activities of many drugs, including trimethoprim and sulfa-based antibiotics. Such mechanisms may also apply to cells across the tree of life.

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Fig. 1: Reactive oxygen species in thymineless death.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Human Genetics and the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Philip J. Hastings & Susan M. Rosenberg

  2. Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Susan M. Rosenberg

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  1. Philip J. Hastings
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  2. Susan M. Rosenberg
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Correspondence to Philip J. Hastings or Susan M. Rosenberg.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Hastings, P.J., Rosenberg, S.M. A radical way to die. Nat Microbiol 2, 1582–1583 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-017-0074-6

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