A molecular link between cell wall biosynthesis, translation fidelity, and stringent response in <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i>.

ABSTRACT: Survival in the human host requires bacteria to respond to unfavorable conditions. In the important Gram-positive pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae, cell wall biosynthesis proteins MurM and MurN are tRNA-dependent amino acyl transferases which lead to the production of branched muropeptides. We demonstrate that wild-type cells experience optimal growth under mildly acidic stressed conditions, but ΔmurMN strain displays growth arrest and extensive lysis. Furthermore, these stress conditions compromise the efficiency with which alanyl-tRNA^Ala synthetase can avoid noncognate mischarging of tRNA^Ala with serine, which is toxic to cells. The observed growth defects are rescued by inhibition of the stringent response pathway or by overexpression of the editing

SUBMITTER: Aggarwal SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8040666 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature