**10. Conclusions**

Significant advances in our understanding of the enzymes of the lysine biosynthetic pathway have occurred in recent years, particularly through detailed kinetic and structural studies of wild-type and mutant enzymes. While advances in inhibitor design have not been as dramatic, our increased structural knowledge augurs well for the design of potent enzyme inhibitors in the near future, and subtle differences between the structures of the enzymes from different pathogenic species offers great potential of designing pathogenspecific antibiotics. The improvements in our understanding of the lysine biosynthetic pathway in recent years will no doubt advance our efforts toward the ultimate goal of developing novel antibiotics that target this essential bacterial pathway.

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