This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pereira, M. P.
Right arrow Articles by Brown, E. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pereira, M. P.
Right arrow Articles by Brown, E. D.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2008, p. 5642-5649, Vol. 190, No. 16
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00526-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Duplication of Teichoic Acid Biosynthetic Genes in Staphylococcus aureus Leads to Functionally Redundant Poly(Ribitol Phosphate) Polymerases{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Mark P. Pereira, Michael A. D'Elia, Justyna Troczynska, and Eric D. Brown*

Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences and the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, 1200 Main St. W., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3Z5

Received 17 April 2008/ Accepted 6 June 2008

Wall teichoic acids are anionic phosphate-rich polymers that are part of the complex meshwork of carbohydrates that make up the gram-positive cell wall. These polymers are essential to the proper rod-shaped morphology of Bacillus subtilis and have been shown to be an important virulence determinant in the nosocomial opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Together, sequence-based studies, in vitro experiments with biosynthetic proteins, and analyses of the chemical structure of wall teichoic acid have begun to shed considerable light on our understanding of the biogenesis of this polymer. Nevertheless, some paradoxes remain unresolved. One of these involves a putative duplication of genes linked to CDP-ribitol synthesis (tarI'J' and tarIJ) as well as poly(ribitol phosphate) polymerization (tarK and tarL) in S. aureus. In the work reported here, we performed careful studies of the dispensability of each gene and discovered a functional redundancy in the duplicated gene clusters. We were able to create mutants in either of the putative ribitol phosphate polymerases (encoded by tarK and tarL) without affecting teichoic acid levels in the S. aureus cell wall. Although genes linked to CDP-ribitol synthesis are also duplicated, a null mutant in only one of these (tarI'J') could be obtained, while tarIJ remained essential. Suppression analysis of the tarIJ null mutant indicated that the mechanism of dysfunction in tarI'J' is due to poor translation of the TarJ' enzyme, which catalyzes the rate-limiting step in CDP-ribitol formation. This work provides new insights into understanding the complex synthetic steps of the ribitol phosphate polymer in S. aureus and has implications on specifically targeting enzymes involved in polymer biosynthesis for antimicrobial design.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences and the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 3Z5, Canada. Phone: (905) 525-9140, ext. 22454. Fax: (905) 522-9033. E-mail: ebrown{at}mcmaster.ca

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 13 June 2008.

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

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2008, p. 5642-5649, Vol. 190, No. 16
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00526-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Baur, S., Marles-Wright, J., Buckenmaier, S., Lewis, R. J., Vollmer, W. (2009). Synthesis of CDP-Activated Ribitol for Teichoic Acid Precursors in Streptococcus pneumoniae. J. Bacteriol. 191: 1200-1210 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»