A. Ornelassoares et al., THE PEPTIDOGLYCAN COMPOSITION OF A STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS MUTANT SELECTED FOR REDUCED METHICILLIN RESISTANCE, The Journal of biological chemistry, 268(35), 1993, pp. 26268-26272
The peptidoglycan of a Tn551 mutant of Staphylococcus aureus (RUSA208)
selected for reduced methicillin resistance was analyzed by reversed-
phase high pressure liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. RUSA2
08 is a member of a cluster of Tn551 mutants located on fragment A of
SmaI digests but is distinct from the femA and femB class of mutants.
The peptidoglycan of RUSA208 contained normal parental muropeptides bu
t in diminished amounts only. The major muropeptides of RUSA208 were n
ew components eluting with somewhat longer retention times from the co
lumn. Amino acid analysis of these new muropeptides showed identical c
ompositions to the corresponding peaks in the parental strain, but mas
s spectrometry revealed increased molecular weights by the following m
ass units: 1 (in monomers), 1 or 2 (in dimers), and 2 or 3 (in trimers
). These observations suggest that in RUSA208 the mutational block may
be in the amidation of the stem peptide glutamate residues, resulting
in the replacement of isoglutamine with free glutamic acid in one or
more of the cell wall stem peptides.