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Related Experiment Videos

Peptidoglycan composition of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium

B L de Jonge1, D Gage, S Handwerger

  • 1Laboratory of Microbiology, Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021, USA.

Microbial Drug Resistance (Larchmont, N.Y.)
|July 1, 1996
PubMed
Summary
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Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) exhibits the same peptidoglycan composition as sensitive strains. This indicates that altered precursor synthesis in VRE does not change the final peptidoglycan structure.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus faecium is a significant clinical concern.
  • Alterations in peptidoglycan precursor synthesis are a known mechanism for vancomycin resistance.
  • The precise impact of these alterations on the final peptidoglycan structure remains to be fully elucidated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the muropeptide composition of peptidoglycan in isogenic vancomycin-resistant and sensitive Enterococcus faecium strains.
  • To determine if the synthesis of lactate-terminating peptidoglycan precursors affects the overall chemical composition of peptidoglycan.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of peptidoglycan muropeptides using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC).

Related Experiment Videos

  • Amino acid analysis to identify peptide subunits.
  • Fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS) for structural characterization.

    • Main Results:

    • The peptidoglycan composition of both vancomycin-sensitive and resistant Enterococcus faecium strains was identical.
    • Peptidoglycan was composed of tri- and tetrapeptide stem peptide subunits.
    • Substitutions with aspartate or asparagine on the epsilon-amino group of lysine residues were observed.

    Conclusions:

    • The synthesis of lactate-terminating peptidoglycan precursors in vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium does not alter the chemical composition of the final peptidoglycan.
    • This finding suggests that resistance mechanisms in E. faecium may involve targets other than the final peptidoglycan structure or that the structural changes are subtle and not detected by current methods.