Recent work finds that reactive oxygen species are generated in cells starved for the nucleobase thymine and contribute to DNA-destructive “thymineless death” mechanisms, which underlie the activities of many drugs, including trimethoprim and sulfa-based antibiotics. Such mechanisms may also apply to cells across the tree of life.
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Hastings, P.J., Rosenberg, S.M. A radical way to die. Nat Microbiol 2, 1582–1583 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-017-0074-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-017-0074-6