title: Phosphocholine of pneumococcal teichoic acids: role in bacterial physiology and pneumococcal infection.
abstract: Pneumococci have an absolute nutritional requirement for choline. Choline is incorporated as phosphocholine (PCho) into lipoteichoic (LTA) and teichoic acid (TA). The PCho residues are required for transformability, the activity of autolysins, the separation of daughter cells after cell division and for anchoring a family of surface proteins which play important roles in pneumococcal infection. The genes encoding the enzymes for PCho incorporation are described. Two strains that acquired the ability to grow in the absence of choline are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biochemie, Med. Fak., Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany. W.Fischer@biochem.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010767:Phosphorylcholine / Q000378:metabolism*; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D013682:Teichoic Acids / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C119768:LicD1 protein, Streptococcus pneumoniae; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D013682:Teichoic Acids; D010767:Phosphorylcholine; C009900:lipoteichoic acid; D002794:Choline