Research - Team Sass

The divisome and elongasome are bacterial protein complexes responsible for peptidoglycan (PG) synthesis during cell division and elongation, respectively. The divisome is a highly dynamic macromolecular complex that is characterized by a time-dependent assembly of specific cell division proteins. Divisome formation is orchestrated by the tubulin homolog FtsZ. To initiate cell division, FtsZ assembles into protofilaments and forms a ring-like structure at the prospective division site. This “Z-ring” functions as a scaffold for the assembly of the bacterial cytokinetic machinery. Due to the increased emergence of bacterial resistance to established antibiotic classes, bacterial cell division has emerged as a promising new target pathway for antibiotic attack (...more). The group investigates the mechanism of cell division in bacteria and explores new approaches to target cell division with antimicrobial compounds.

The acyldepsipeptide antibiotic ADEP is a major compound under investigation. ADEP shows potent antibacterial activity against Gram-positive pathogens including streptococci, enterococci as well as multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). ADEP acts by dysregulation of the caseinolytic protease Clp, a complex consisting of a proteolytic core, ClpP, that is flanked by corresponding Clp-ATPases. Protease activity of Clp is tightly controlled by Clp-ATPases that bind to distinct hydrophobic pockets of the barrel-shaped ClpP tetradecamer and thread the protein substrates into the degradation chamber. ADEP overcomes these strict control mechanisms by turning ClpP into an uncontrolled protease that now degrades flexible proteins like casein in the absence of Clp-ATPases, indeed leading to bacterial suicide. ADEP competes with and displaces the Clp-ATPases from ClpP, thereby preventing all its physiological functions. ADEP was the first antibiotic reported to kill bacteria by over-activating a non-essential target (...more). We showed recently that by binding to the hydrophobic pockets ADEP allosterically controls the conformation of ClpP locking its catalytic triads in an active conformation and opening the entrance pore to the degradation chamber (…more).

Synthesis of the bacterial cell envelope requires synchronization of a multitude of biosynthetic machineries and regulatory networks. The signal molecule sensed by the Ser/Thr kinase PknB of S. aureus, implicated in coordinating cross-wall formation, autolysis and cell division, remained elusive so far. Here, in collaboration with the labs of Fabian Grein and Tanja Schneider in Bonn, we could show that PknB interacts with lipid II, crosstalks with the two-component system WalKR, and phosphorylates the major cell division protein FtsZ. We observed PknB to preferentially localize to the septum triggered by its PASTA domains. The data provides a model for the role of PknB to control cell wall metabolism and cell division (...more).

Bacterial cell wall stress response in S. aureus is mainly controlled by the two-component regulatory system VraSR that reacts to perturbation of cell wall synthesis by either cell wall-active substances, like vancomycin or daptomycin, or deregulated cell wall enzymes including MurF and Pbp2. The VraSR stimulon comprises the vraSR genes together with genes related to the cell wall metabolism of S. aureus like murZ, uppS, bacA, pbp2, sgtB and genes related to protein metabolism. We investigated the effect of the lantibiotic mersacidin, which acts by complexing the sugar phosphate head group of the peptidoglycan precursor lipid II thereby inhibiting the transglycosylation reaction of peptidoglycan biosynthesis, on inducing the cell wall stress response via VraSR. Our studies characterized the VraSR system as a stress sensing system (versus drug sensing system). We further found that mersacidin led to an extensive induction of the cell wall stress response, and in contrast to other cell wall-active antibiotics such as vancomycin, very low concentrations of mersacidin (0.15 x MIC) were sufficient for stimulon induction. The efficacy of mersacidin was not affected by an increased cell wall thickness, which is part of the VISA-type resistance mechanism and functions by trapping the vancomycin molecules in the cell wall before they reach lipid II. Therefore, the relatively higher concentration of mersacidin at the membrane might explain why mersacidin is such a strong inducer of VraSR compared to vancomycin (…more). In further studies, we characterized S. aureus VC40, a strain that shows full resistance to glycopeptides (vancomycin and teicoplanin MICs ≥32 mg/L) and daptomycin (MIC = 4 mg/L), and we could identify two amino acid exchanges in VraS amongst others by genome sequencing (…more). Transcriptomics indicated the increased expression of their respective regulons. Although not reaching the measured MIC for VC40, reconstitution of the L114S and D242G exchanges in VraS(VC40) into the susceptible parental background of S. aureus NCTC 8325 resulted in increased resistance to glycopeptides and daptomycin. The expression of VraS(VC40) led to increased transcription of the cell wall stress stimulon, a thickened cell wall, a decreased growth rate, reduced autolytic activity and increased resistance to lysostaphin-induced lysis in the generated mutant. Hence, a double mutation of a single gene locus, vraS, is sufficient to convert the vancomycin-susceptible strain S. aureus NCTC 8325 into a vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (…more).