Publication Date:
2009-09-19
Description:
In all known organisms, amino acids are predominantly thought to be synthesized and used as their L-enantiomers. Here, we found that bacteria produce diverse D-amino acids as well, which accumulate at millimolar concentrations in supernatants of stationary phase cultures. In Vibrio cholerae, a dedicated racemase produced D-Met and D-Leu, whereas Bacillus subtilis generated D-Tyr and D-Phe. These unusual D-amino acids appear to modulate synthesis of peptidoglycan, a strong and elastic polymer that serves as the stress-bearing component of the bacterial cell wall. D-Amino acids influenced peptidoglycan composition, amount, and strength, both by means of their incorporation into the polymer and by regulating enzymes that synthesize and modify it. Thus, synthesis of D-amino acids may be a common strategy for bacteria to adapt to changing environmental conditions.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2759711/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2759711/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lam, Hubert -- Oh, Dong-Chan -- Cava, Felipe -- Takacs, Constantin N -- Clardy, Jon -- de Pedro, Miguel A -- Waldor, Matthew K -- AI-R37-42347/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- CA24487/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- GM086258/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 CA024487/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01 CA024487-30/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM086258/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM086258-02/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI042347/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI042347-14/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Sep 18;325(5947):1552-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1178123.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19762646" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Alanine/chemistry/metabolism
;
Amino Acid Isomerases/genetics/metabolism
;
Amino Acids/chemistry/*metabolism
;
Bacillus subtilis/growth & development/*metabolism/ultrastructure
;
Cell Wall/*metabolism/ultrastructure
;
Down-Regulation
;
Glutamic Acid/chemistry/metabolism
;
Isoleucine/metabolism
;
Leucine/metabolism
;
Methionine/metabolism
;
Oligopeptides/chemistry
;
Peptidoglycan/*biosynthesis/chemistry
;
Polysaccharides/chemistry
;
Stereoisomerism
;
Valine/metabolism
;
Vibrio cholerae/cytology/growth & development/*metabolism/ultrastructure
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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