Growth Inhibition Strategies Based on Antimicrobial Microbes/Toxins

Within shared ecological niches, toxin secretion by microorganisms often ensures survival of the producing ‘killer’ strain against other microbial competitors. Not surprisingly, the cellular targets for various toxin attacks and the toxin mode of actions do significantly vary depending on the nature of the essential process that is actually targeted by the toxin in question. For instance, microbial toxins capable of inhibiting or inactivating the essential and fundamental process of ribosomal protein biosynthesis have been shown not only to target individual levels of mRNA translation, e.g. initiation, elongation and termination, but also to inactivate different components and key players of the translation machinery.