Emerging knowledge of regulatory roles of d-amino acids in bacteria
By Felipe Cava, H. Lam, M. de Pedro, M. Waldor. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2010
713 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The d-enantiomers of amino acids have been thought to have relatively minor functions in biological processes. While l-amino acids clearly predominate in nature, d-amino acids are sometimes found in proteins that are not synthesized by ribosomes, and d-Ala and d-Glu are routinely found in the peptidoglycan cell wall of bacteria. Here, we review recent findings showing that d-amino acids have previously unappreciated regulatory roles in the bacterial kingdom. Many diverse bacterial phyla synthesize and release d-amino acids, including d-Met and d-Leu, which were not previously known to be made. These noncanonical d-amino acids regulate cell wall remodeling in stationary phase and cause biofilm dispersal in aging bacterial communities. Elucidating the mechanisms by which d-amino acids govern cell wall remodeling and biofilm disassembly will undoubtedly reveal new paradigms for understanding how extracytoplasmic processes are regulated as well as lead to development of novel therapeutics.
Subfields: Biochemistry, Food Science, Molecular Biology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aa7f3eab3cbffb780e767d624f486dab845def4f
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In Molecular Biology
Citations in the corpus
- Adipose Tissue Distribution, Inflammation and Its Metabolic Consequences, Including Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (2020, background): “A key structural and functional component of adipose tissue is made up of extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules, including collagen and proteoglycans such as versican and biglycan, among others (389).”
- Bacterial Biofilms: Development, Dispersal, and Therapeutic Strategies in the Dawn of the Postantibiotic Era (2013, background): “It is likely that D-amino acids promote biofilm disassembly by disrupting adhesive fiber interactions (Cava et al. 2010).”