title: Core Steps of Membrane-Bound Peptidoglycan Biosynthesis: Recent Advances, Insight and Opportunities.
abstract: We are entering an era where the efficacy of current antibiotics is declining, due to the development and widespread dispersion of antibiotic resistance mechanisms. These factors highlight the need for novel antimicrobial discovery. A large number of antimicrobial natural products elicit their effect by directly targeting discrete areas of peptidoglycan metabolism. Many such natural products bind directly to the essential cell wall precursor Lipid II and its metabolites, i.e., preventing the utlisation of vital substrates by direct binding rather than inhibiting the metabolising enzymes themselves. Concurrently, there has been an increase in the knowledge surrounding the proteins essential to the metabolism of Lipid II at and across the cytoplasmic membrane. In this review, we draw these elements together and look to future antimicrobial opportunities in this area.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. a.c.k.teo@warwick.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Alvin C K
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Teo
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. david.roper@warwick.ac.uk.
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Roper
keywords: FtsW; Lipid I; Lipid II; Lipid II flippase; MraY; MurG; MurJ; peptidoglycan; undecaprenyl pyrophosphate phosphatases