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An Antibiotic-Inducible Cell Wall-Associated Protein That Protects Bacillus subtilis from Autolysis

Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-8101

Received 19 March 2007/ Accepted 24 April 2007

In Bacillus subtilis, antibiotics that impair cell wall synthesis induce a characteristic stress response including the ^W and ^M regulons and the previously uncharacterized yoeB gene. Here we demonstrate that YoeB is a cell wall-associated protein with weak sequence similarity to a noncatalytic domain of class B penicillin-binding proteins. A yoeB-null mutant exhibits an increased rate of autolysis in response to cell wall-targeting antibiotics or nutrient depletion. This phenotype does not appear to be correlated with gross alterations in peptidoglycan structure or levels of autolysins. Promoter dissection experiments define a minimal region necessary for antibiotic-mediated induction of yoeB, and this region is highly conserved preceding yoeB homologs in close relatives of B. subtilis. These results support a model in which induction of YoeB in response to cell envelope stress decreases the activity of autolysins and thereby reduces the rate of antibiotic-dependent cell death.

Published ahead of print on 4 May 2007.

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