p-Coumaric acid is present in many fruits, vegetables, and Graminaceous plants. In this study, the antibacterial activity and mechanism of action of p-coumaric acid against bacteria was assessed. The results showed that p-coumaric acid effectively inhibited the growth of all test bacterial pathogens, and the MIC values were ranging from 10 to 80 μg/ml p-Coumaric acid significantly increased the outer and plasma membrane permeability, resulting in the loss of the barrier function. The leakage of cytoplasmic contents was also demonstrated by the electron micrographs. It was also found p-Coumaric acid could bind to the phosphate anion in DNA double helix, and intercalate the groove in DNA double helix, which might affect the replication, transcription and expression. The results demonstrate that p-coumaric acid has dual mechanisms of bactericidal activity: disrupting bacterial cell membranes and binding to bacterial genomic DNA to inhibit cellular functions, ultimately leading to cell death.

中文翻译：

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对香豆酸通过双重损伤机制杀死细菌

对香豆酸存在于许多水果、蔬菜和禾本科植物中。在这项研究中，评估了对香豆酸对细菌的抗菌活性和作用机制。结果表明，对香豆酸有效抑制了所有受试细菌病原体的生长，MIC值为10～80 μg/ml对香豆酸显着增加外膜和质膜通透性，导致屏障功能。电子显微照片也证明了细胞质内容物的泄漏。还发现对香豆酸可以与DNA双螺旋中的磷酸根阴离子结合，嵌入DNA双螺旋中的凹槽，从而影响DNA的复制、转录和表达。