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{Walter:2020:10.1101/2020.01.08.899310,
author = {Walter, A and Unsleber, S and Rismondo, J and Jorge, AM and Peschel, A and Gründling, A and Mayer, C},
doi = {10.1101/2020.01.08.899310},
title = {Phosphoglycerol-type wall- and lipoteichoic acids are enantiomeric polymers differentially cleaved by the stereospecific glycerophosphodiesterase GlpQ},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.08.899310},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - <jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>The cell envelope of Gram-positive bacteria generally comprises two types of polyanionic polymers, either linked to peptidoglycan, wall teichoic acids (WTA), or to membrane glycolipids, lipoteichoic acids (LTA). In some bacteria, including<jats:italic>Bacillus subtilis</jats:italic>strain 168, WTA and LTA both are glycerolphosphate polymers, yet are synthesized by different pathways and have distinct, although not entirely understood morphogenetic functions during cell elongation and division. We show here that the exo-lytic<jats:italic>sn</jats:italic>-glycerol-3-phosphodiesterase GlpQ can discriminate between<jats:italic>B. subtilis</jats:italic>WTA and LTA polymers. GlpQ completely degrades WTA, lacking modifications at the glycerol residues, by sequentially removing glycerolphosphates from the free end of the polymer up to the peptidoglycan linker. In contrast, GlpQ is unable to cleave unmodified LTA. LTA can only be hydrolyzed by GlpQ when the polymer is partially pre-cleaved, thereby allowing GlpQ to get access to the end of the polymer that is usually protected by a connection to the lipid anchor. This indicates that WTA and LTA are enantiomeric polymers: WTA is made of<jats:italic>sn</jats:italic>-glycerol-3-phosphate and LTA is made of<jats:italic>sn</jats:italic>-glycerol-1-phosphate. Differences in stereochemistry between WTA and LTA were assumed based on differences in biosynthesis precursors and chemical degradation products, but so far had not been demonstrated directly by differential, enantioselective cleavage of isolated polymers. The discriminative stereochemistry impacts the dissimilar physiological and immunogenic properties of WTA and LTA and enables independent degradation of the polymers, while appearing in the same location; e.g. under phosphate limitation,<jats:italic>B. subtilis</jats:italic>168 specifically hyd
AU  - Walter,A
AU  - Unsleber,S
AU  - Rismondo,J
AU  - Jorge,AM
AU  - Peschel,A
AU  - Gründling,A
AU  - Mayer,C
DO  - 10.1101/2020.01.08.899310
PY  - 2020///
TI  - Phosphoglycerol-type wall- and lipoteichoic acids are enantiomeric polymers differentially cleaved by the stereospecific glycerophosphodiesterase GlpQ
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.08.899310
ER  -
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