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The glucosaminidase domain of Atl - the major Staphylococcus aureus autolysin - has DNA-binding activity
Inês R Grilo1, Ana Madalena Ludovice, Alexander Tomasz
1Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780, Oeiras, Portugal.
Abstract:
In this communication, we describe evidence demonstrating the capacity of Atl, the major Staphylococcus aureus autolytic enzyme to bind DNA. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) show that both the Atl protein and the endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (GL) domain were able to bind DNA of nonspecific sequence. The implications of this unexpected observation for the physiology of S. aureus remain to be explored.
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