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Tunicamycin is an antibiotic produced by several types of bacteria, but it is unsuitable for use in humans because it is also toxic to animal cells.
In a new study, researchers from the University of Oxford’s department of Chemistry and the Structural Genomics Consortium, along with collaborators at the John Innes Institute and at the NIH in Bethesda, examined the mechanism behind Tunicamycin’s toxicity and found that it acted upon a gene called DPAGT1, which is responsible for producing an enzyme involved in glycoprotein biosynthesis. This is a gene that occasionally mutates, leading to rare genetic diseases.