Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ruiz N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2563115 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20081001 40
Peptidoglycan is a cell-wall glycopeptide polymer that protects bacteria from osmotic lysis. Whereas in gram-positive bacteria it also serves as scaffold for many virulence factors, in gram-negative bacteria, peptidoglycan is an anchor for the outer membrane. For years, we have known the enzymes required for the biosynthesis of peptidoglycan; what was missing was the flippase that translocates the lipid-anchored precursors across the cytoplasmic membrane before their polymerization into mature p ...[more]