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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2007, p. 4332-4337, Vol. 189, No. 11
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01829-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Selectivity for D-Lactate Incorporation into the Peptidoglycan Precursors of Lactobacillus plantarum: Role of Aad, a VanX-Like D-Alanyl-D-Alanine Dipeptidase{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Marie Deghorain,1 Philippe Goffin,1,{ddagger} Laetitia Fontaine,1 Jean-Luc Mainardi,2 Richard Daniel,3 Jeff Errington,3 Bernard Hallet,1 and Pascal Hols1*

Unité de Génétique, Institut des Sciences de la Vie, Université catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium,1 INSERM, U655-LRMA, Université Paris 6, Université Paris-Descartes, Centre de Recherche Biomedicales des Cordeliers, Paris, F-75006, France,2 Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, The Medical School, University of New Castle upon Tyne, New Castle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, United Kingdom3

Received 6 December 2006/ Accepted 19 March 2007

Lactobacillus plantarum produces peptidoglycan precursors ending in D-lactate instead of D-alanine, making the bacterium intrinsically resistant to vancomycin. The ligase Ddl of L. plantarum plays a central role in this specificity by synthesizing D-alanyl-D-lactate depsipeptides that are added to the precursor peptide chain by the enzyme MurF. Here we show that L. plantarum also encodes a D-Ala-D-Ala dipeptidase, Aad, which eliminates D-alanyl-D-alanine dipeptides that are produced by the Ddl ligase, thereby preventing their incorporation into the precursors. Although D-alanine-ended precursors can be incorporated into the cell wall, inactivation of Aad failed to suppress growth defects of L. plantarum mutants deficient in D-lactate-ended precursor synthesis.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Unité de Génétique, Institut des Sciences de la Vie, Université catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Phone: 32-10-47 88 96. Fax: 32-10-47 31 09. E-mail: hols{at}gene.ucl.ac.be

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 30 March 2007.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

{ddagger} Present address: Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, NIZO Food Research, 6710 BA Ede, The Netherlands.

Journal of Bacteriology, June 2007, p. 4332-4337, Vol. 189, No. 11
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01829-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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