The N-acetylmannosamine transferase catalyzes the first committed step of teichoic acid assembly in Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus
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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Metabolic Glycoengineering of Sialic Acid Using N-acyl-modified Mannosamines
Published on: November 25, 2017
Michael A D'Elia1, James A Henderson, Terry J Beveridge
1Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract:
There have been considerable strides made in the characterization of the dispensability of teichoic acid biosynthesis genes in recent years. A notable omission thus far has been an early gene in teichoic acid synthesis encoding the N-acetylmannosamine transferase (tagA in Bacillus subtilis; tarA in Staphylococcus aureus), which adds N-acetylmannosamine to complete the synthesis of undecaprenol pyrophosphate-linked disaccharide. Here, we show that the N-acetylmannosamine transferases are dispensable for growth in vitro, making this biosynthetic enzyme the last dispensable gene in the pathway, suggesting that tagA (or tarA) encodes the first committed step in wall teichoic acid synthesis.
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