A lysozyme-like protein in Brucella abortus is involved in the early stages of intracellular replication.

ABSTRACT: Secretion of proteins in Gram-negative bacteria is a high-energy-consuming process that requires translocation across two membranes and a periplasmic space composed of a mesh-like layer, the peptidoglycan. To achieve this, bacteria have evolved complex secretion systems that cross these barriers, and in many cases there are specific peptidoglycanases that degrade the peptidoglycan to allow the proper assembly of the secretion machinery. We describe here the identification and characterization of a muramidase in Brucella abortus that participates in the intracellular multiplication in professional and nonprofessional phagocytes. We demonstrated that this protein has peptidoglycanase activity, that a strain with a clean deletion of the gene displayed a defect in the early stages of the intra

SUBMITTER: Del Giudice MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3584897 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature