: Structure-based discovery of inhibitors of the YycG histidine kinase: new selleck screening library chemical leads to combat Staphylococcus epidermidis infections. BMC Microbiol 2006, 6:96–114.CrossRefPubMed Authors’ contributions click here XZ and YY conceived of the study and participated in its design and coordination. NL, FW and WZ carried out the modeling of VicK protein and structure-based virtual screening. NL, SN, YL, KW and JC participated in the biological experiments of the in vivo assays and the in vitro assays. NL, FW and NY participated in analyzed the data and produced figures.

NL, FW, WZ, XZ and YY drafted the manuscript. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Zinc is an essential trace element for a large number of enzymes and proteins

in bacteria, but it can be toxic at high levels. It is therefore crucial that intracellular zinc level over a small concentration range must be tightly regulated [1–3]. Bacterial zinc homeostasis is achieved mainly by the coordinated expression of zinc uptake and export systems that are separately regulated by their own regulators [1–3]. Bacteria have evolved at least three types of Zn2+ export systems [2, 3] to protect cells from high toxic Zn2+ concentrations, namely cation diffusion facilitators (e.g. CzcD in Alcaligenes eutrophus), RND type exporters (e.g. CzcABC in A. eutrophus), and P-type ATPases (e.g. ZntA in Escherichia coli). CzcD, CzcABC and ZntA Inhibitor Library are regulated by an ArsR-like repressor CzrA [4], a two-component system CzcR/S [5], and a MerR-family regulator ZntR [6], respectively. Zinc ions are transported into the cytoplasm via high- and low-affinity zinc uptake systems, which are represented by ZnuABC of E. coli [7] and YciABC of Bacillus subtilis [8, 9], respectively. A broad set of zinc uptake systems including ZnuABC and YciABC are regulated by the zinc uptake regulator Zur that is a homologous to the well-known Fur family of metal-dependent regulators [1]. Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of plague that is a zoonotic disease primarily affecting rodents [10]. Maintenance

of plague in nature is primarily dependent upon cyclic transmission Calpain between fleas and rodents [10]. Y. pestis possesses its potential to attack humans, and the human infection usually occurs with the transmission of the pathogen from animals by the biting of an infected flea, but this deadly disease can be transmitted from person to person by respiratory route. Y. pestis can remain viable and fully virulent after 40 weeks in soil [11]. Thus, soil appears a potential telluric reservoir for Y. pestis, which could represent an alternative mechanism for maintenance of plague [11]. Zinc homeostasis should be crucial for survival of Y. pestis in fleas, rodents and soil. Up to now, regulation of zinc homeostasis by Zur is poorly understood in Y. pestis. In this study, we constructed a zur null mutant of Y.