Metabolic Processing of Selenium-Based Bioisosteres of meso-Diaminopimelic Acid in Live Bacteria

A primary component of all known bacterial cell walls is the peptidoglycan (PG) layer, which is composed of repeating units of sugars connected to short and unusual peptides. The various steps within PG biosynthesis are targets of potent antibiotics as proper assembly of the PG is essential for cellular growth and survival. Synthetic mimics of PG have proven to be indispensable tools to study the bacterial cell structure, growth, and remodeling. Yet, a common component of PG, meso-diaminopimelic acid (m-DAP) at the third position of the stem peptide, remains challenging to access synthetically and is not commercially available. Here, we describe the synthesis and metabolic processing of a selenium-based bioisostere of m-DAP (selenolanthionine) and show that it is installed within the PG of live bacteria by the native cell wall crosslinking machinery in mycobacterial species. This PG probe has an orthogonal release mechanism that could be important for downstream proteomics studies. Finally, we describe a bead-based assay that is compatible with high-throughput screening of cell wall enzymes. We envision that this probe will supplement the current methods available for investigating PG crosslinking in m-DAP-containing organisms.