Peptidoglycan hydrolase LytF plays a role in cell separation with CwlF during vegetative growth of Bacillus subtilis.

Peptidoglycan hydrolase, LytF (CwlE), was determined to be identical to YhdD (deduced cell wall binding protein) by zymography after insertional inactivation of the yhdD gene. YhdD exhibits high sequence similarity with CwlF (PapQ, LytE) and p60 of Listeria monocytogenes. The N-terminal region of YhdD has a signal sequence followed by five tandem repeated regions containing polyserine residues. The C-terminal region corresponds to the catalytic domain, because a truncated protein without the N-terminal region retained cell wall hydrolase activity. The histidine-tagged LytF protein produced in Escherichia coli cells hydrolyzed the linkage of D-gamma-glutamyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid in murein peptides, indicating that it is a D,L-endopeptidase. Northern hybridization and primer extension analyses indicated that the lytF gene was transcribed by EsigmaD RNA polymerase. Disruption of lytF led to slightly filamentous cells, and a lytF cwlF double mutant exhibited extraordinary microfiber formation, which is similar to the cell morphology of the cwlF sigD mutant.