The dlt operon of Bacillus cereus is required for resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides and for virulence in insects.

ABSTRACT: The dlt operon encodes proteins that alanylate teichoic acids, the major components of cell walls of gram-positive bacteria. This generates a net positive charge on bacterial cell walls, repulsing positively charged molecules and conferring resistance to animal and human cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in gram-positive pathogenic bacteria. AMPs damage the bacterial membrane and are the most effective components of the humoral immune response against bacteria. We investigated the role of the dlt operon in insect virulence by inactivating this operon in Bacillus cereus, which is both an opportunistic human pathogen and an insect pathogen. The Delta dlt(Bc) mutant displayed several morphological alterations but grew at a rate similar to that for the wild-type strain. This mutant was le

SUBMITTER: Abi Khattar Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2772482 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature