Structural Insights into Escherichia coli Phosphopantothenoylcysteine Synthetase by Native Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry

CoaBC, part of the vital coenzymeA biosynthetic pathway in bacteria, has recently been validated as a promising antimicrobial target. In this work, we employed native ion mobility- mass spectrometryto gain structural insights into the phosphopantothenoylcysteine synthetasedomain of E. coli CoaBC. Moreover, native mass spectrometrywas validated as a screening tool to identify novel inhibitors of this enzyme, highlighting the utility and versatility of this technique both for structural biologyand for drug discovery.