title: Hydrocarbon rulers in UDP-N-acetylglucosamine acyltransferases.
abstract: UDP-GlcNAc acyltransferase (LpxA), the first enzyme of lipid A biosynthesis, catalyzes the transfer of an acyl chain activated on acyl carrier protein (ACP) to UDP-GlcNAc. LpxAs are very selective for the lengths of their acyl donor substrates. Escherichia coli LpxA prefers R-3-hydroxymyristoyl-ACP to R-3-hydroxydecanoyl-ACP by a factor of approximately 1000, whereas Pseudomonas aeruginosa LpxA prefers the opposite. E. coli G173M LpxA and the reciprocal P. aeruginosa M169G LpxA show reversed substrate selectivity in vitro and in vivo, demonstrating the existence of precise hydrocarbon rulers in LpxAs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Wyckoff
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Cotter
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Dotson
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Raetz
mesh_terms: D000217:Acyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D001665:Binding Sites; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000737:chemistry*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons; D000217:Acyltransferases; C050304:acyl-(acyl-carrier-protein)-UDP-N-acetylglucosamine acyltransferase