Open AccessSystematic Assessment of Accessibility to the Surface of Staphylococcus aureus
Author(s) -
Noel J. Ferraro,
Seonghoon Kim,
Wonpil Im,
Marcos M. Pires
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acs chemical biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.899
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1554-8937
pISSN - 1554-8929
DOI - 10.1021/acschembio.1c00604
Subject(s) - teichoic acid , peptidoglycan , bacteria , staphylococcus aureus , cytoplasm , intracellular , bacterial cell structure , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biophysics , biology , cell wall , membrane permeability , membrane , biochemistry , genetics
Proteins from bacterial foes, antimicrobial peptides, and host immune proteins must navigate past a dense layer of bacterial surface biomacromolecules to reach the peptidoglycan (PG) layer of Gram-positive bacteria. A subclass of molecules (e.g., antibiotics with intracellular targets) also must permeate through the PG (in a molecular sieving manner) to reach the cytoplasmic membrane. Despite the biological and therapeutic importance of surface accessibility, systematic analyses in live bacterial cells have been lacking. We describe a live cell fluorescence assay that is robust, shows a high level of reproducibility, and reports on the permeability of molecules to and within the PG scaffold. Moreover, our study shows that teichoic acids impede the permeability of molecules of a wide range of sizes and chemical composition.