PEPTIDOGLYCAN HYDROLASES OF BACILLUS-SUBTILIS-168

There are multiple peptidoglycan hydrolases associated with Bacillus s ubtilis 168 and these potentially lethal enzymes have been implicated in a number of important cellular processes, Several enzymes have been studied at the molecular level and their structural genes characteriz ed. This information has begun to identify roles for individual enzyme s in motility, cell separation, differentiation, and phage lysis, It h as become apparent that in many cases important autolytic functions ca n be performed by more than one enzyme, so the complex web of mutually compensatory components can be unraveled only by making multiple muta nts, One such multiple mutant has revealed the presence of several pre viously unknown minor autolysins, the functions of which are currently obscure.