MurA (MurZ), the enzyme that catalyzes the first committed step in peptidoglycan biosynthesis, is essential in Escherichia coli.

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Brown ED, Vivas EI, Walsh CT, Kolter R

MurA (MurZ), the enzyme that catalyzes the first committed step in peptidoglycan biosynthesis, is essential in Escherichia coli.

J Bacteriol. 1995 Jul;177(14):4194-7.

PubMed ID

7608103 [ View in PubMed

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Abstract

The Escherichia coli gene murZ was recently shown to encode UDP-N-acetylglucosamine enolpyruvyl transferase, which catalyzes the first committed step of peptidoglycan biosynthesis (J. L. Marquardt, D. A. Siegele, R. Kolter, and C. T. Walsh, J. Bacteriol. 174:5748-5752, 1992). The map position of murZ (69.3 min) differed from that determined for murA (90 min), a gene which had been previously proposed to encode the same activity (P.S. Venkateswaran and H. C. Wu, J. Bacteriol. 110:935-944, 1972). Here we describe the construction of a chromosomal deletion of murZ and a plasmid containing murZ under arabinose control. Growth of cells containing the murZ deletion was dependent on the expression of murZ from the plasmid. We conclude that murZ is an essential gene and encodes the sole UDP-N-acetylglucosamine enolpyruvyl transferase of E. coli. To simplify the nomenclature, we recommend that murA be used to designate the gene at 69.3 min that encodes this activity and that the designation murZ be abandoned.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Drug Targets

Drug	Target	Kind	Organism	Pharmacological Action	Actions
Fosfomycin	UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 1-carboxyvinyltransferase	Protein	Escherichia coli (strain K12)	Yes	Inhibitor	Details