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. 1992 Aug;174(15):5152–5155. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.15.5152-5155.1992

Altered murein composition in a DD-carboxypeptidase mutant of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

A Severin 1, C Schuster 1, R Hakenbeck 1, A Tomasz 1
PMCID: PMC206337  PMID: 1629174

Abstract

The muropeptide composition of a Streptococcus pneumoniae mutant in which the DD-carboxypeptidase (penicillin-binding protein 3) gene was interrupted by plasmid insertion close to the 3' end of the gene was examined. Extensive compositional changes were observed: the linear pentapeptide, a minor component of the parental cells, became the most abundant monomeric peptide in the mutant wall, while the proportion of tripeptides that represent the main monomers in the parental cells was greatly reduced. The amount of the major dimer of parental cells, the directly cross-linked tri-tetrapeptide, was also reduced by a factor of 4. It was partially replaced by a novel dimer: the cross-linked product of a linear pentapeptide and a pentapeptide carrying a serylalanine dipeptide substituent on the epsilon-NH2 group of its lysine residue. This dimer together with two other dimeric peptides, each containing the serylalanine cross bridge, became the quantitatively major components of the mutant peptidoglycan.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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