Identification of a Molecular Latch that Regulates Staphylococcal Virulence (Cell Chemical Biology)

In this work, Xie et al. report the structure of a chimeric protein containing the complete HK module of AgrC, the histidine kinase involved in S. aureus agr quorum sensing. Structure-guided biochemical analysis reveals that activation of AgrC involves disruption of an intrasteric inhibitory docking interaction in the AgrC dimer.