期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1975
卷号:72
期号:5
页码:1690-1694
DOI:10.1073/pnas.72.5.1690
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:The choline-containing pneumococcal lipoteichoic acid (Forssman antigen) is a powerful inhibitor of the homologous autolytic enzyme, an N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine amidase (EC 3.5.1.28 , MUCOPEPTIDE AMIDOHYDROLASE). Low concentrations of deoxycholate can reverse the inhibition. Wall teichoic acid preparations are inactive at several hundred-fold higher concentrations. Activation of an inactive form of autolysin by in vitro incubation with choline-containing cell walls is also inhibited by lipoteichoic acid. Addition of lipoteichoic acid to the growth medium of pneumococcal cultures causes chain formation, resistance to stationary phase lysis, and penicillin tolerance. It is suggested that a physiological role of lipoteichoic acids may be in the in vivo control of autolysin activity.