Inactivation of the monofunctional peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase SgtB allows Staphylococcus aureus to survive in the absence of lipoteichoic acid

Abstract The cell wall of Staphylococcus aureus is composed of peptidoglycan and the anionic polymers lipoteichoic acid (LTA) and wall teichoic acid. LTA is required for growth and normal cell morphology in S. aureus. Strains lacking LTA are usually only viable when grown under osmotically stabilizing conditions or after the acquisition of compensatory mutations. LTA negative suppressor strains with inactivating mutations in gdpP , resulting in an increase in intracellular c-di-AMP levels, have been described previously. Here, we sought to identify factors other than c-di-AMP that allow S. aureus to survive without LTA. LTA-negative strains able to grow in un-supplemented medium were obtained and found to contain mutations in sgtB, mazE, clpX or vraT . The growth improvement through mutations in mazE and sgtB was confirmed by complementation analysis. We also show that an S. aureus sgtB transposon mutant, inactivated for the monofunctional peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase SgtB, displays a 4-fold increase in the MIC towards a number of cell wall-targeting antibiotics, suggesting that alteration in the peptidoglycan structure could help bacteria compensate for the lack of LTA. Muropeptide analysis of peptidoglycan isolated from a WT and sgtB mutant strains did not reveal any sizable alternations in the peptidoglycan structure. In contrast, the peptidoglycan isolated from an LTA-negative ltaS mutant strain showed a significant reduction in the fraction of highly crosslinked peptidoglycan, which was partially rescued in the sgtB / ltaS double mutant suppressor strain. Taken together, these data point towards an important function of LTA in cell wall integrity through its requirement for proper peptidoglycan assembly. Importance The bacterial cell wall acts as primary defence against environmental insults such as changes in osmolarity. It is also a vulnerable structure as defects in its synthesis can lead to growth arrest or cell death. The important human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus has a typical Gram-positive cell wall, which consists of peptidoglycan and the anionic polymers lipoteichoic acid (LTA) and wall teichoic acid. Several clinically relevant antibiotics inhibit the synthesis of peptidoglycan; hence it and teichoic acids are considered attractive targets for the development of new antimicrobials. We show that LTA is required for efficient peptidoglycan crosslinking in S. aureus and inactivation of a peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase can partially rescue this defect, altogether revealing an intimate link between peptidoglycan and LTA synthesis.