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PMID: 7961496 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Changes in wall teichoic acid during the rod-sphere transition of Bacillus subtilis 168.

Journal of bacteriology ·Vol. 176 ·No. 23 ·1994-12-00 ·Pages 7252-9

Pollack JH, Neuhaus FC

Abstract

Wall teichoic acid (WTA) is essential for the growth of Bacillus subtilis 168. To clarify the function of this polymer, the WTAs of strains 168, 104 rodB1, and 113 tagF1 (rodC1) grown at 32 and 42 degrees C were characterized. At the restrictive temperature, the rodB1 and tagF1 (rodC1) mutants undergo a rod-to-sphere transition that is correlated with changes in the WTA content of the cell wall. The amount of WTA decreased 33% in strain 104 rodB1 and 84% in strain 113 tagF1 (rodC1) when they were grown at the restrictive temperature. The extent of alpha-D-glucosylation (0.84) was not affected by growth at the higher temperature in these strains. The degree of D-alanylation decreased from 0.22 to 0.10 in the rodB1 mutant but remained constant (0.12) in the tagF1 (rodC1) mutant at both temperatures. Under these conditions, the degree of D-alanylation in the parent strain decreased from 0.27 to 0.21. The chain lengths of WTA in strains 168 and 104 rodB1 grown at both temperatures were approximately 53 residues, with a range of 45 to 60. In contrast, although the chain length of WTA from the tagF1 (rodC1) mutant at 32 degrees C was similar to that of strains 168 and 104 rodB1, it was approximately eight residues at the restrictive temperature. The results suggested that the rodB1 mutant is partially deficient in completed poly(glycerophosphate) chains. The precise biochemical defect in this mutant remains to be determined. The results for strain 113 tagF1(rodC1) are consistent with the temperature-sensitive defect in the CDP-glycerol:poly(glycerophosphate) glycerophosphotransferase (H. M. Pooley, F.-X. Abellan, and D. Karamata, J. Bacteriol. 174:646-649, 1992).

Related Genes
rodA rodC
MeSH Terms
Bacillus subtilis/genetics,growth & development,ultrastructure Bacterial Proteins/genetics Carbohydrate Sequence Cell Fractionation Cell Wall/chemistry,metabolism,ultrastructure Escherichia coli Proteins Membrane Proteins Microscopy, Electron, Scanning Molecular Sequence Data Morphogenesis/genetics Mutation Teichoic Acids/metabolism Transferases (Other Substituted Phosphate Groups)/genetics
Chemicals
Bacterial Proteins Escherichia coli Proteins Membrane Proteins Teichoic Acids mrdB protein, E coli Transferases (Other Substituted Phosphate Groups) CDP glycerol glycerophosphotransferase
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Pollack J H
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
Neuhaus F C
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Article Info
Journal
Journal of bacteriology
Abbr.
J Bacteriol
ISSN
0021-9193
DOI
10.1128/jb.176.23.7252-7259.1994
Published
1994-12-00
Pages
7252-9
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
2985120R
PMCID
PMC197113
Subset
IM
Grants
NIAID NIH HHS · AI-04615 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/jb.176.23.7252-7259.1994 PMC Full Text View journal details
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