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Updated: May 20, 2026

Using Modified Synthetic Oligonucleotides to Assay Nucleic Acid-Metabolizing Enzymes
Published on: July 5, 2024
Function of the D-alanine:D-alanine ligase lid loop: a molecular modeling and bioactivity study
Martina Hrast1, Blaž Vehar, Samo Turk
1Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana , Aškerčeva 7, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Abstract:
D-Alanine:D-alanine ligase (Ddl) is an essential ATP-dependent bacterial enzyme involved in peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Discovery of Ddl inhibitors not competitive with ATP has proven to be difficult because the Ddl bimolecular d-alanine binding pocket is very restricted, as is accessibility to the active site for larger molecules in the catalytically active closed conformation of Ddl. A molecular dynamics study of the opening and closing of the Ddl lid loop informs future structure-based design efforts that allow for the flexibility of Ddl. A virtual screen on generated enzyme conformations yielded some hit inhibitors whose bioactivity was determined.
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