title: Primer preactivation of peptidoglycan polymerases.
abstract: Peptidoglycan glycosyltransferases are highly conserved bacterial enzymes that catalyze glycan strand polymerization to build the cell wall. Because the cell wall is essential for bacterial cell survival, these glycosyltransferases are potential antibiotic targets, but a detailed understanding of their mechanisms is lacking. Here we show that a synthetic peptidoglycan fragment that mimics the elongating polymer chain activates peptidoglycan glycosyltransferases by bypassing the rate-limiting initiation step.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Tsung-Shing Andrew
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tania J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Lupoli
authors.forename: Yuto
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sumida
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsukamoto
authors.forename: Yihui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yuriy
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rebets
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Kahne
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D002473:Cell Wall / Q000201:enzymology; D008954:Models, Biological; D015394:Molecular Structure; D046928:Peptidoglycan Glycosyltransferase / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D058105:Polymerization
chemical_list: D046928:Peptidoglycan Glycosyltransferase