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J Bacteriol. 1965 January; 89(1): 136-140
Copyright © 1965 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Incorporation of Hydroxylysine into the Cell Wall and a Cell-Wall Precursor in Staphylococcus aureus

^a Department of Biochemistry, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota

ABSTRACT

SMITH, W. GRADY (University of Minnesota, St. Paul), DANIEL P. GILBOE, AND L. M. HENDERSON. Incorporation of hydroxylysine into the cell wall and a cell-wall precursor in Staphylococcus aureus. J. Bacteriol. 89:136–140. 1965.—Recent work has shown that hydroxylysine can substitute for lysine in cell-wall synthesis of Streptococcus faecalis, apparently becoming incorporated into cell-wall mucopeptide. This paper extends these observations to investigate the metabolism of hydroxylysine in Staphylococcus aureus, an organism from which sufficiently large quantities of cell-wall precursors. uridine diphosphate-N-acetylmuramyl peptides, could be obtained. Hydroxylysine has been shown to be incorporated into the cell-wall precursor uridine diphosphate-N-acetylmuramyl L-ala·D-glu· L-lys·D-ala·D-ala from S. aureus (Copenhagen) apparently in lieu of lysine. Hydroxylysine was also incorporated into the cell-wall mucopeptides of S. aureus in resting cultures. This incorporation was inhibited by penicillin or lysine, but not by chloramphenicol. Hydroxylysine had little effect on the incorporation of lysine into S. aureus. Hydroxylysine acted as a growth inhibitor in this organism; the inhibition was reversed by lysine.

¹ Present address: Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Arkansas, Little Rock.

² Predoctoral trainee, National Institutes of Health training grant.