title: Biosynthesis of peptidoglycan in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. 1. The incorporation of peptidoglycan into the cell wall.
abstract: Ether-treated cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa catalyze the formation of crosslinked peptidoglycan from the two nucleotide precursors uridinediphospho-N-acetylglucosamine and uridinediphospho-N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-gamma-glutamyl-meso-diaminopimelyl-D-alanyl-D-alanine. The main enzymatic reactions of biosynthesis were similar to those found in Escherichia coli. Part of the reaction products were soluble in 4% sodium dodecylsulfate whereas the other part was covalently bound to the preexisting cell wall peptidoglycan sacculus. The incorporation into cell wall is carried out by a transpeptidation reaction in which the nascent peptidoglycan functions mainly as the donor and the preexisting one as acceptor. The detergent-soluble peptidoglycan is composed of partially crosslinked peptidoglycan strands as well as low-molecular-weight peptidoglycan fragments. Pulse-chase biosynthesis experiments show that the detergent-soluble peptidoglycan is an intermediate that eventually becomes covalently bound to the wall. The DD-carboxypeptidase activity of P. aeruginosa is membrane-bound and does not hydrolyse C-terminal D-alanine residues from the L-lysine-containing nucleotide-precursor analogue. An LD-carboxypeptidase was also detected in P. aeruginosa.
mesh_terms: D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D009112:Muramic Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000378:metabolism; D010457:Peptidoglycan / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D009112:Muramic Acids; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D010457:Peptidoglycan