About: Fructose-asparagine

Fructose-asparagine (F-Asn) is a glycosylamine compound that is most notably used by Salmonella during Salmonella-mediated inflammation of the intestine. In addition to Salmonella, several other species of bacteria may utilize fructose-asparagine as a nutrient. The name of the genetic locus that encodes the uptake capability in Salmonella is fra. This fra locus has five genes: fraR (a regulator), fraB a fructose-asparagine deglycase, fraD a sugar kinase, fraA a fructose-asparagine transporter, and fraE a L-asparaginase. Notably, mutations in fraB cause the buildup of the toxic intermediate 6-phosphofuctose-aspartate (6-P-F-Asp). The buildup of 6-P-F-Asp has a bacteriostatic effect on fraB mutant cells, making FraB a potential drug target.