Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 345, Issue 6193, Pages 220-222Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1254522
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- American Heart Association
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) [F32GM103056, R01GM100951, R01AI099144, R01GM76710]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Peptidoglycan (PG) is a polysaccharide matrix that protects bacteria from osmotic lysis. Inhibition of its biogenesis is a proven strategy for killing bacteria with antibiotics. The assembly of PG requires disaccharide-pentapeptide building blocks attached to a polyisoprene lipid carrier called lipid II. Although the stages of lipid II synthesis are known, the identity of the essential flippase that translocates it across the cytoplasmic membrane for PG polymerization is unclear. We developed an assay for lipid II flippase activity and used a chemical genetic strategy to rapidly and specifically block flippase function. We combined these approaches to demonstrate that MurJ is the lipid II flippase in Escherichia coli.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available