Wall Teichoic Acid Polymers Are Dispensable for Cell Viability in
Bacillus subtilisJournal Articles
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ABSTRACT
An extensive literature has established that the synthesis of wall teichoic acid in
Bacillus subtilis
is essential for cell viability. Paradoxically, we have recently shown that wall teichoic acid biogenesis is dispensable in
Staphylococcus aureus
(M. A. D'Elia, M. P. Pereira, Y. S. Chung, W. Zhao, A. Chau, T. J. Kenney, M. C. Sulavik, T. A. Black, and E. D. Brown, J. Bacteriol. 188:4183-4189, 2006). A complex pattern of teichoic acid gene dispensability was seen in
S. aureus
where the first gene (
tarO
) was dispensable and later acting genes showed an indispensable phenotype. Here we show, for the first time, that wall teichoic acid synthesis is also dispensable in
B. subtilis
and that a similar gene dispensability pattern is seen where later acting enzymes display an essential phenotype, while the gene
tagO
, whose product catalyzes the first step in the pathway, could be deleted to yield viable mutants devoid of teichoic acid in the cell wall.
