The Absence of a Mature Cell Wall Sacculus in Stable Listeria monocytogenes L-Form Cells Is Independent of Peptidoglycan Synthesis.

ABSTRACT: L-forms are cell wall-deficient variants of otherwise walled bacteria that maintain the ability to survive and proliferate in absence of the surrounding peptidoglycan sacculus. While transient or unstable L-forms can revert to the walled state and may still rely on residual peptidoglycan synthesis for multiplication, stable L-forms cannot revert to the walled form and are believed to propagate in the complete absence of peptidoglycan. L-forms are increasingly studied as a fundamental biological model system for cell wall synthesis. Here, we show that a stable L-form of the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes features a surprisingly intact peptidoglycan synthesis pathway including glycosyl transfer, in spite of the accumulation of multiple mutations during prolonged passage in the

SUBMITTER: Studer P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4858229 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature