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. 1987 Nov;169(11):5308–5310. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.11.5308-5310.1987

Changes in peptidoglycan composition and penicillin-binding proteins in slowly growing Escherichia coli.

E Tuomanen 1, R Cozens 1
PMCID: PMC213942  PMID: 3312172

Abstract

The composition of peptidoglycan of chemostat-grown cultures of Escherichia coli was investigated as a function of growth rate. As the generation time was lengthened from 0.8 to 13.8 h, there was a decrease in the major monomer (disaccharide tetrapeptide) and dimer (bis-disaccharide tetrapeptide), while disaccharide tripeptide moieties increased to greater than 50% of the total wall. The average chain length became much shorter; lipoprotein density tripled, and the number of unusual diaminopimelyl-diaminopimelic acid crossbridges increased fivefold. As cells grew more slowly, amounts of penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) 1a-1b complex and 4 decreased, while amounts of PBPs 3 and the 5-6 complex increased. We propose that the chemical composition of E. coli cell walls changes with growth rate in a manner consistent with alterations in the activities of PBPs and cell shape.

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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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