Abstract:
Lipid intermediates I and II involved in the biosynthesis of bacterial peptidoglycan are the undecaprenyl pyrophosphoryl MurNAc-pentapeptide and undecaprenyl pyrophosphoryl GlcNAc-β-(1→4)-MurNAc-disaccharide-peptide, respectively. Membrane transferase MraY catalyzes the formation of lipid I whereas peripheral MurG transferase catalyzes the addition of N-acetylglucosamine onto lipid I to yield lipid II. These lipid intermediates often undergo additional modifications leading to complex pools. The glycan chains of peptidoglycan are assembled by polymerization of the GlcNAc-β-(1→4)-MurNAc-disaccharide-peptide unit of lipid II with formation of β-(1→4) linkages. Antibiotics such as glycopeptides and lantibiotics bind noncovalently with extracytoplasmically located lipid II and thereby lead to the arrest of peptidoglycan polymerization. Chemically or enzymatically synthesized lipid intermediates and analogues are now available in useful amounts for the study of the membrane steps of peptidoglycan biosynthesis, of the complexes formed with antibiotics, and of mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. Future work will require the development of convenient methods for the analysis of the lipid pools. Among the cellular aspects still poorly addressed, the elucidation of the mechanism of translocation of lipid II through the membrane remains an important challenging enigma.
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van Heijenoort, J. (2010). Lipid Intermediates in Bacterial Peptidoglycan Biosynthesis. In: Timmis, K.N. (eds) Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_31
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