Role of lipid A palmitoylation in bacterial pathogenesis.

The presence of palmitate in a minor fraction of lipid A has been known since the chemical structure of lipid A was first elucidated, but the functional importance in bacterial pathogenesis of regulated lipid A palmitoylation has become clear only recently. A palmitate chain from a phospholipid is incorporated into lipid A by an outer membrane enzyme PagP. The isolation of pagP mutants from pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria has revealed that …