title: Identification of four families of peptidoglycan lytic transglycosylases.
abstract: The lytic transglycosylases are a class of autolysins which cleave the bacterial cell wall heteropolymer peptidoglycan (murein) to facilitate its biosynthesis and turnover. A search of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases using the primary sequences of the six characterized lytic transglycosylases of Escherichia coli, a membrane-bound form of the enzyme from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the endolysins of lambda bacteriophage permitted the identification of a total of 127 known and hypothetical enzymes from a wide variety of bacteria and bacteriophage. These amino acid sequences have been arranged into four families based on alignments, and consensus motifs have been identified. Family 1 represents a superfamily comprising 86 sequences which are subdivided into five (1A--1E) subfamilies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada.
authors.forename: N T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Blackburn
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Clarke
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D016208:Databases, Factual; D010450:Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016695:Glycosyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006602:Hexosyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D016695:Glycosyltransferases; D006602:Hexosyltransferases; C021815:murein transglycosylase; D010450:Endopeptidases; C001143:endolysin