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Journal of Bacteriology, December 2006, p. 8313-8316, Vol. 188, No. 23
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01336-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Wall Teichoic Acid Polymers Are Dispensable for Cell Viability in Bacillus subtilis{triangledown}

Michael A. D'Elia,1 Kathryn E. Millar,1 Terry J. Beveridge,2 and Eric D. Brown1*

Antimicrobial Research Centre and Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8N 3Z5, Canada,1 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada2

Received 22 August 2006/ Accepted 20 September 2006

An extensive literature has established that the synthesis of wall teichoic acid in Bacillus subtilis is essential for cell viability. Paradoxically, we have recently shown that wall teichoic acid biogenesis is dispensable in Staphylococcus aureus (M. A. D'Elia, M. P. Pereira, Y. S. Chung, W. Zhao, A. Chau, T. J. Kenney, M. C. Sulavik, T. A. Black, and E. D. Brown, J. Bacteriol. 188:4183-4189, 2006). A complex pattern of teichoic acid gene dispensability was seen in S. aureus where the first gene (tarO) was dispensable and later acting genes showed an indispensable phenotype. Here we show, for the first time, that wall teichoic acid synthesis is also dispensable in B. subtilis and that a similar gene dispensability pattern is seen where later acting enzymes display an essential phenotype, while the gene tagO, whose product catalyzes the first step in the pathway, could be deleted to yield viable mutants devoid of teichoic acid in the cell wall.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Health Science Centre, 4H32, 1200 Main St. West, Hamilton, ON, L8N 3Z5, Canada. Phone: (905) 525-9140, ext. 22392. Fax: (905) 522-9033. E-mail: ebrown{at}mcmaster.ca.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 29 September 2006.

Journal of Bacteriology, December 2006, p. 8313-8316, Vol. 188, No. 23
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01336-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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