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Volume 150, Issue 2

Phospholipid synthesis in : and encode functional phosphatidylcholine synthase and phosphatidylglycerolphosphate synthase proteins Free

Abstract

Phospholipids are an important component of bacterial membranes. differs from many other bacteria in that it contains only two major membrane phospholipids: phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and phosphatidylcholine (PC). appears to lack enzymes required for synthesis of PC through the well-described methylation pathway. However, does contain a gene () with significant identity to a recently described phosphatidylcholine synthase gene () of also contains a gene () with significant identity to the gene () encoding phosphatidylglycerolphosphate synthase, an enzyme in the synthetic pathway of PG. Activity of BB0249 was confirmed by cloning the gene into , which does not produce PC. Transformation with a plasmid carrying resulted in production of PC by , but only in the presence of exogenously supplied choline, as would be predicted for a Pcs. Because loss of Pgs activity is lethal to , activity of was confirmed by the ability of BB0721 to complement an Pgs mutant. A plasmid containing was transformed into a Pgs mutant of containing a copy of the native gene on a temperature-regulated plasmid. The temperature-regulated plasmid was exchanged for a plasmid containing and it was shown that BB0721 was able to replace the lost Pgs function and restore bacterial growth. This study has established the existence and function of two critical enzymes in the synthesis of PC and PG in . Understanding of the biosynthetic pathways of PC and PG in is the first step in delineating the role of these phospholipids in the pathogenesis of Lyme disease.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): CL, cardiolipin , DAG, diacylglycerol , dH2O, distilled water , G3P, glycerol 3-phosphate , PC, phosphatidylcholine , Pcs, phosphatidylcholine synthase , PE, phosphatidylethanolamine , PG, phosphatidylglycerol , Pgp, phosphatidylglycerol phosphatase , PGP, phosphatidylglycerolphosphate , Pgs, phosphatidylglycerolphosphate synthase , Pmt, phosphatidylmethyltransferase and PS, phosphatidylserine
SGM
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2004-02-01
2024-04-16
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Phospholipid synthesis in Borrelia burgdorferi: BB0249 and BB0721 encode functional phosphatidylcholine synthase and phosphatidylglycerolphosphate synthase proteins
Microbiology 150, 391 (2004); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.26752-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.26752-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.26752-0
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