Wessel Mirja, Klüsener Sonja, Gödeke Julia, Fritz Christiane, Hacker Stephanie, Narberhaus Franz
Lehrstuhl für Biologie der Mikroorganismen, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Mol Microbiol. 2006 Nov;62(3):906-15. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2006.05425.x. Epub 2006 Sep 29.
Phosphatidylcholine (PC, lecithin) has long been considered a solely eukaryotic membrane lipid. Only a minority of all bacteria is able to synthesize PC. The plant-transforming bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens encodes two potential PC forming enzymes, a phospholipid N-methyltransferase (PmtA) and a PC synthase (Pcs). We show that PC biosynthesis and tumour formation on Kalanchoë plants was impaired in the double mutant. The virulence defect was due to a complete lack of the type IV secretion machinery in the Agrobacterium PC mutant. Our results strongly suggest that PC in bacterial membranes is an important determinant for the establishment of host-microbe interactions.
磷脂酰胆碱（PC，卵磷脂）长期以来一直被认为是一种仅存在于真核生物中的膜脂。在所有细菌中，只有少数能够合成PC。植物转化细菌根癌土壤杆菌编码两种潜在的PC形成酶，一种磷脂N-甲基转移酶（PmtA）和一种PC合酶（Pcs）。我们发现，双突变体中PC的生物合成以及在长寿花植物上的肿瘤形成均受到损害。毒力缺陷是由于根癌土壤杆菌PC突变体中完全缺乏IV型分泌机制。我们的结果有力地表明，细菌膜中的PC是建立宿主-微生物相互作用的重要决定因素。
