A New Class of Cell Wall-Recycling l,d-Carboxypeptidase Determines β-Lactam Susceptibility and Morphogenesis in Acinetobacter baumannii.

ABSTRACT: The hospital-acquired pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii possesses a complex cell envelope that is key to its multidrug resistance and virulence. The bacterium, however, lacks many canonical enzymes that build the envelope in model organisms. Instead, A. baumannii contains a number of poorly annotated proteins that may allow alternative mechanisms of envelope biogenesis. We demonstrated previously that one of these unusual proteins, ElsL, is required for maintaining a characteristic short rod shape and for withstanding antibiotics that attack the septal cell wall. Curiously, ElsL is composed of a leaderless YkuD-family domain usually found in secreted, cell wall-modifying l,d-transpeptidases (LDTs). Here, we show that, rather than being an LDT, ElsL is actually a new class of cytoplasmic l,d

SUBMITTER: Dai Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8649774 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature