Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Aug;18(8):446-460.
doi: 10.1038/s41579-020-0366-3. Epub 2020 May 18.

Regulation of peptidoglycan synthesis and remodelling

Alexander J F Egan  1 , Jeff Errington  1 , Waldemar Vollmer  2
Affiliations
Review

Regulation of peptidoglycan synthesis and remodelling

Alexander J F Egan et al. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Bacteria surround their cell membrane with a net-like peptidoglycan layer, called sacculus, to protect the cell from bursting and maintain its cell shape. Sacculus growth during elongation and cell division is mediated by dynamic and transient multiprotein complexes, the elongasome and divisome, respectively. In this Review we present our current understanding of how peptidoglycan synthases are regulated by multiple and specific interactions with cell morphogenesis proteins that are linked to a dynamic cytoskeletal protein, either the actin-like MreB or the tubulin-like FtsZ. Several peptidoglycan synthases and hydrolases require activation by outer-membrane-anchored lipoproteins. We also discuss how bacteria achieve robust cell wall growth under different conditions and stresses by maintaining multiple peptidoglycan enzymes and regulators as well as different peptidoglycan growth mechanisms, and we present the emerging role of LD-transpeptidases in peptidoglycan remodelling.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Young, K. D. The selective value of bacterial shape. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 70, 660–703 (2006). - PubMed - PMC
    1. Vollmer, W., Blanot, D. & de Pedro, M. A. Peptidoglycan structure and architecture. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 32, 149–167 (2008). - PubMed
    1. Typas, A., Banzhaf, M., Gross, C. A. & Vollmer, W. From the regulation of peptidoglycan synthesis to bacterial growth and morphology. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 10, 123–136 (2012).
    1. Goffin, C. & Ghuysen, J. M. Multimodular penicillin-binding proteins: an enigmatic family of orthologs and paralogs. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 62, 1079–1093 (1998). - PubMed - PMC
    1. Meeske, A. J. et al. SEDS proteins are a widespread family of bacterial cell wall polymerases. Nature 537, 634–638 (2016). First report of peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase activity of a SEDS protein. - PubMed - PMC

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources