Antimicrobial peptides derived from Nemuri induce ribosomal condensation to inhibit translation.

Nemuri-derived intrinsically disordered antimicrobial peptides inhibit bacterial growth by binding ribosomal and RNA surfaces, remodeling ribosome-rich regions into condensates that suppress translation.

• Why it matters: Antibiotic resistance demands antimicrobials with new mechanisms, but it remains unclear whether bacterial intracellular spatial organization can be targeted directly.
• What they did: The study used Nemuri-derived peptides that enter bacterial cells without overt membrane disruption, then accumulate in ribosome-rich regions and bind broadly via multivalent interactions.
• The result: Ribosome-rich regions became condensates with reduced ribosomal mobility, suppressing global protein synthesis and showing broad-spectrum activity, including against drug-resistant pathogens, with low cytotoxicity toward Drosophila and mammalian cells.

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