WhyD tailors surface polymers to prevent premature bacteriolysis and direct cell elongation in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

ABSTRACT: Penicillin and related antibiotics disrupt cell wall synthesis in bacteria causing the downstream misactivation of cell wall hydrolases called autolysins to induce cell lysis. Despite the clinical importance of this phenomenon, little is known about the factors that control autolysins and how penicillins subvert this regulation to kill cells. In the pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (Sp), LytA is the major autolysin responsible for penicillin-induced bacteriolysis. We recently discovered that penicillin treatment of Sp causes a dramatic shift in surface polymer biogenesis in which cell wall-anchored teichoic acids (WTAs) increase in abundance at the expense of lipid-linked teichoic acids (LTAs). Because LytA binds to both species of teichoic acids, this change recruits

SUBMITTER: Flores-Kim J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9208761 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature