Grace E. Wilde

1 month ago | biorxiv.org | Madison Hopkins |Zachary Yasinov |Mark J. Fakler |Grace E. Wilde

AbstractThe cortex layer of the peptidoglycan cell wall surrounding bacterial spores contains a modified sugar, muramic-δ-lactam, that is essential for spore germination. Genetic evidence has linked the conserved enzyme SwsB to the muramic-δ-lactam biosynthetic pathway. SwsB belongs to a large family of metal-dependent deacetylases, but its function is unclear because a putative catalytic residue is mutated.