Alternative ribosomal protein RpmE2 is produced under zinc limitation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and slows translation and bacterial growth
Amy L. Forehand, Kinga Malezyna, Keena S. Thomas, Ian J. Glomski, Cynthia Nau Cornelissen, Ahmad Jomaa, Alison K. Criss · 2026
Read Alternative ribosomal protein RpmE2 is produced under zinc limitation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and slows translation and bacterial growth by Amy L. Forehand, Kinga Malezyna, Keena S. Thomas, Ian J. Glomski, Cynthia Nau Cornelissen, Ahmad Jomaa, Alison K. Criss (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13343924.txt.
Description
Amy L. Forehand and co-authors uncover a surprising zinc-starvation trick in the gonorrhea germ in 2026. Neisseria gonorrhoeae steals zinc from human guard proteins. How its inner machinery copes when zinc runs low was unknown. The team tracked two spare ribosomal proteins switched on under zinc shortage.
Unlike in other bacteria, where spare parts keep growth brisk, the gonococcus mixes old and new ribosome parts side by side. Cells forced to use only the spare L31 protein translated proteins more slowly and grew worse, and deleting the spares actually improved growth under zinc shortage. The slowdown may be the point: easing off protein making could stretch survival against the host's metal-withholding defenses.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Amy L. Forehand, Kinga Malezyna, Keena S. Thomas, Ian J. Glomski, Cynthia Nau Cornelissen, Ahmad Jomaa, Alison K. Criss |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 45833 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |