Wall teichoic acids regulate peptidoglycan synthesis by paving cell wall nanostructure.

ABSTRACT: The bacterial cell wall is a polymeric exoskeleton, composed largely of peptidoglycan, that determines cell size and shape. Two systems synthesize peptidoglycan during the growth of rod-shaped bacteria, which are found pervasively across diverse bacterial taxa: the multi-protein Rod complexes are critical for cell shape because they synthesize anisotropic peptidoglycan oriented along the cell circumference^1-3, whereas PBP1 synthesizes isotropic peptidoglycan^1,4 (Fig. 1A). In Gram-positive bacteria, rod shape is also dependent on wall teichoic acids⁵, an abundant cell wall polymer, for entirely unknown reasons. Here, we show that teichoic acids occlude nanoscopic pores in the cell wall, which simultaneously promotes Rod complex activity and inhibits PBP1. De

SUBMITTER: Barber F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12132405 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature