Post-translational modification of ESKAPE pathogens as a potential target in drug discovery

•ESKAPE pathogens posing a significant threat to the health industry thus demanding serious attention towards the development of new therapeutics.•These bacteria have diverse post-translational modifications (PTMs) in order to destabilize or divert the host cell pathways according to their benefit.•Prevalent PTMs includes addition of chemical groups or complex molecules, covalently linked small proteins or the modification of amino acids.•Study of PTMs provides better insight into the host-pathogen relationship such as bacterial escape from host defense.•Targeting the bacterial PTMs that are involved in the pathogenesis can be used as one of the strategies to control infections caused by ESKAPE pathogens. ESKAPE pathogens are gaining clinical importance owing to their high pervasiveness and increasing resistance to various antimicrobials. These bacteria have several post-translational modifications (PTMs) that destabilize or divert host cell pathways. Prevalent PTMs of ESKAPE pathogens include addition of chemical groups (acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation and hydroxylation) or complex molecules (AMPylation, ADP-ribosylation, glycosylation and isoprenylation), covalently linked small proteins [ubiquitylation, ubiquitin-like proteins (UBL) conjugation and small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)] or modification of amino acid side-chains (eliminylation and deamidation). Therefore, the understanding of different bacterial PTMs and host proteins manipulated by these PTMs provides better insight into host–pathogen interaction and will also help to develop new antibacterial agents against ESKAPE pathogens.