de Kruijff Ben, van Dam Vincent, Breukink Eefjan
Chemical Biology and Organic Chemistry, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2008 Sep-Nov;79(3-5):117-21. doi: 10.1016/j.plefa.2008.09.020. Epub 2008 Nov 12.
The bacterial cell wall is mainly composed of peptidoglycan, which is a three-dimensional network of long aminosugar strands located on the exterior of the cytoplasmic membrane. These strands consist of alternating MurNAc and GlcNAc units and are interlinked to each other via peptide moieties that are attached to the MurNAc residues. Peptidoglycan subunits are assembled on the cytoplasmic side of the bacterial membrane on a polyisoprenoid anchor and one of the key components in the synthesis of peptidoglycan is Lipid II. Being essential for bacterial cell survival, it forms an attractive target for antibacterial compounds such as vancomycin and several lantibiotics. Lipid II consists of one GlcNAc-MurNAc-pentapeptide subunit linked to a polyiosoprenoid anchor 11 subunits long via a pyrophosphate linker. This review focuses on this special molecule and addresses three questions. First, why are special lipid carriers as polyprenols used in the assembly of peptidoglycan? Secondly, how is Lipid II translocated across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane? And finally, how is Lipid II used as a receptor for lantibiotics to kill bacteria?
细菌细胞壁主要由肽聚糖组成，肽聚糖是位于细胞质膜外部的长氨基糖链的三维网络。这些链由交替的MurNAc和GlcNAc单元组成，并通过连接到MurNAc残基上的肽部分相互连接。肽聚糖亚基在细菌膜的细胞质侧组装在聚异戊二烯锚上，肽聚糖合成中的关键成分之一是脂质II。由于对细菌细胞存活至关重要，它成为诸如万古霉素和几种羊毛硫抗生素等抗菌化合物的有吸引力的靶点。脂质II由一个GlcNAc-MurNAc-五肽亚基通过焦磷酸连接子连接到一个11个亚基长的聚异戊二烯锚上。本综述聚焦于这个特殊分子并探讨三个问题。第一，为什么在肽聚糖组装中使用特殊的脂质载体如聚戊烯醇？第二，脂质II如何跨细菌细胞质膜转运？最后，脂质II如何用作羊毛硫抗生素杀死细菌的受体？
