2. Academic Validation
  3. Accessibility to Peptidoglycan Is Important for the Recognition of Gram-Positive Bacteria in Drosophila

Accessibility to Peptidoglycan Is Important for the Recognition of Gram-Positive Bacteria in Drosophila

  • Cell Rep. 2019 May 21;27(8):2480-2492.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.04.103.
Filipa Vaz 1,  Ilias Kounatidis 2,  Gonçalo Covas 3,  Richard M Parton 4,  Maria Harkiolaki 5,  Ilan Davis 4,  Sergio Raposo Filipe 6,  Petros Ligoxygakis 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd., OX1 3QU Oxford, UK; Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Avenida da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal.
  • 2 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd., OX1 3QU Oxford, UK; Diamond Light Source, Ltd., Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, OX11 0DE Didcot, UK.
  • 3 Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Avenida da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
  • 4 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd., OX1 3QU Oxford, UK.
  • 5 Diamond Light Source, Ltd., Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, OX11 0DE Didcot, UK.
  • 6 Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Avenida da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 7 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd., OX1 3QU Oxford, UK. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 31116990 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.04.103
Abstract

In Drosophila, it is thought that peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) SA and LC structurally discriminate between Bacterial peptidoglycans with lysine (Lys) or diaminopimelic (DAP) acid, respectively, thus inducing differential antimicrobial transcription response. Here, we find that accessibility to PG at the cell wall plays a central role in immunity to Infection. When wall teichoic acids (WTAs) are genetically removed from S. aureus (Lys type) and Bacillus subtilis (DAP type), thus increasing accessibility, the binding of both PGRPs to either bacterium is increased. PGRP-SA and -LC double mutant flies are more susceptible to Infection with both WTA-less bacteria. In addition, WTA-less bacteria grow better in PGRP-SA/-LC double mutant flies. Finally, Infection with WTA-less bacteria abolishes any differential activation of downstream antimicrobial transcription. Our results indicate that accessibility to cell wall PG is a major factor in PGRP-mediated immunity and may be the cause for discrimination between classes of pathogens.

Keywords

B. subtilis; Drosophila; PGRPs; S. aureus; TagO; innate immunity; peptidoglycan.

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