Atomistic Scale Effects of Lipopolysaccharide Modifications on Bacterial Outer Membrane Defenses.

ABSTRACT: Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are a main constituent of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. Salmonella enterica, like many other bacterial species, are able to chemically modify the structure of their LPS molecules through the PhoPQ pathway as a defense mechanism against the host immune response. These modifications make the outer membrane more resistant to antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), large lipophilic drugs, and cation depletion, and are crucial for survival within a host organism. It is believed that these LPS modifications prevent the penetration of large molecules and AMPs through a strengthening of lateral interactions between neighboring LPS molecules. Here, we performed a series of long-timescale molecular dynamics simulations to study how each of three key S. enterica lipid

SUBMITTER: Rice A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5883967 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature