Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Angelika Gründling

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Disease

Professor of Molecular Microbiology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5256a.grundling Website

 
 
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Location

 

6.22Flowers buildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Rismondo:2019:10.1128/mBio.01448-19,
author = {Rismondo, J and Halbedel, S and Grundling, A},
doi = {10.1128/mBio.01448-19},
journal = {mBio},
pages = {1--17},
title = {Cell shape and antibiotic resistance is maintained by the activity of multiple FtsW and RodA enzymes in Listeria monocytogenes},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01448-19},
volume = {10},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Rod-shaped bacteria have two modes of peptidoglycan synthesis: lateral synthesis and synthesis at the cell division site. These two processes are controlled by two macromolecular protein complexes, the elongasome and divisome. Recently, it has been shown that the Bacillus subtilis RodA protein, which forms part of the elongasome, has peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase activity. The cell division specific RodA homolog FtsW fulfils a similar role at the divisome. The human pathogen Listeria monocytogenes encodes up to six FtsW/RodA homologs, however their functions have not yet been investigated. Analysis of deletion and depletion strains led to the identification of the essential cell division-specific FtsW protein, FtsW1. Interestingly, L. monocytogenes encodes a second FtsW protein, FtsW2, which can compensate for the lack of FtsW1, when expressed from an inducible promoter. L. monocytogenes also possesses three RodA homologs, RodA1, RodA2 and RodA3 and their combined absence is lethal. Cells of a rodA1/rodA3 double mutant are shorter and have increased antibiotic and lysozyme sensitivity, probably due to a weakened cell wall. Results from promoter activity assays revealed that expression of rodA3 and ftsW2 is induced in the presence of antibiotics targeting penicillin binding proteins. Consistent with this, a rodA3 mutant was more susceptible to the β-lactam antibiotic cefuroxime. Interestingly, overexpression of RodA3 also led to increased cefuroxime sensitivity. Our study highlights that L. monocytogenes encodes a multitude of functional FtsW and RodA enzymes to produce its rigid cell wall and that their expression needs to be tightly regulated to maintain growth, cell division and antibiotic resistance.
AU  - Rismondo,J
AU  - Halbedel,S
AU  - Grundling,A
DO  - 10.1128/mBio.01448-19
EP  - 17
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 2150-7511
SP  - 1
TI  - Cell shape and antibiotic resistance is maintained by the activity of multiple FtsW and RodA enzymes in Listeria monocytogenes
T2  - mBio
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01448-19
UR  - https://mbio.asm.org/content/10/4/e01448-19/
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/71896
VL  - 10
ER  -
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