Incorporation of Hydroxylysine into the Cell Wall and a Cell-wall Precursor in Staphylococcus Aureus.

Smith, W. Grady (University of Minnesota, St. Paul), Daniel P. Gilboe, and L. M. Henderson. Incorporation of hydroxylysine into the cell wall and a cell-wall precursor in Staphylococcus aureus. J. Bacteriol. 89:136-140. 1965.-Recent work has shown that hydroxylysine can substitute for lysine in cell-wall synthesis of Streptococcus faecalis, apparently becoming incorporated into cell-wall mucopeptide. This paper extends these observations to investigate the metabolism of hydroxylysine in Staphylococcus aureus, an organism from which sufficiently large quantities of cell-wall precursors. uridine diphosphate-N-acetylmuramyl peptides, could be obtained. Hydroxylysine has been shown to be incorporated into the cell-wall precursor uridine diphosphate-N-acetylmuramyl l-ala.d-glu. l-lys.d-ala.d-ala from S. aureus (Copenhagen) apparently in lieu of lysine. Hydroxylysine was also incorporated into the cell-wall mucopeptides of S. aureus in resting cultures. This incorporation was inhibited by penicillin or lysine, but not by chloramphenicol. Hydroxylysine had little effect on the incorporation of lysine into S. aureus. Hydroxylysine acted as a growth inhibitor in this organism; the inhibition was reversed by lysine.