sulfo

In this study, the researchers developed a new proton-exchange membrane comprising graphene sheets with 5-10 nm-diameter holes, which are chemically modified with sulfanilic functional groups affording sulfo groups around the holes.

Previous efforts to isolate PSTs revealed that microbes often make analogues that bear one or more sulfo groups, leading to the discovery that this chemical modification reduces the potency and toxicity of these natural products5,6.

The biosynthetic pathways and enzymes involved in the installation of these sulfo groups were not understood until a few years ago.

In the current work, the authors combined SxtN and SxtSUL with GxtA, and thereby not only confirmed that SxtN installs a sulfo group on the previously identified nitrogen atom, but also discovered that SxtSUL selectively sulfates the hydroxyl group generated by GxtA.

This strongly suggests that sulfo groups reduce PST toxicity, further highlighting their potential for incorporation into PST-based drug candidates.