...Hans Gerstmans; Lorena Rodríguez-Rubio; Rob Lavigne; Yves Briers One of the last untapped reservoirs in nature for the identification of new anti-microbials is bacteriophages, the natural killers of bacteria. Lytic bacteriophages encode peptidoglycan (PG) lytic enzymes able to degrade the PG layer...

... belonging to the same species. Among them, ColM (colicin M) is the only one that blocks the biosynthesis of peptidoglycan, a specific bacterial cell-wall polymer essential for cell integrity. ColM acts in the periplasm by hydrolysing the phosphoester bond of the peptidoglycan lipid intermediate (lipid II...

... membrane. Most bacteriocins act on the inner membrane as pore-forming toxins or they target cytoplasmic DNA/RNA and ribosomal synthesis respectively. Only two bacteriocins are known to become activated in the periplasmic space and to inhibit the renewal process of the peptidoglycan structure...

...Petra Lukacik; Travis J. Barnard; Susan K. Buchanan Purified phage lysins present an alternative to traditional antibiotics and work by hydrolysing peptidoglycan. Phage lysins have been developed against Gram-positive pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis and Streptococcus pneumoniae , where...

... and certain Gram-positive bacilli. In the present review, we discuss the mechanisms involved in bacterial recognition, in particular the differential recognition of various types of bacterial PGN (peptidoglycan) by different members of the PGRP (PGN recognition protein) family of receptors. 1 To whom...