Nutrient-dependent structural changes in S. aureus peptidoglycan revealed by solid-state NMR spectroscopy.

ABSTRACT: The bacterial cell wall is essential to cell survival and is a major target of antibiotics. The main component of the bacterial cell wall is peptidoglycan, a cage-like macromolecule that preserves cellular integrity and maintains cell shape. The insolubility and heterogeneity of peptidoglycan pose a challenge to conventional structural analyses. Here we use solid-state NMR combined with specific isotopic labeling to probe a key structural feature of the Staphylococcus aureus peptidoglycan quantitatively and nondestructively. We observed that both the cell-wall morphology and the peptidoglycan structure are functions of growth stage in S. aureus synthetic medium (SASM). Specifically, S. aureus cells at stationary phase have thicker cell walls with nonuniformly thickened septa compared to ce

SUBMITTER: Zhou X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3554850 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature