A Vancomycin-inducible LacZ Reporter System in Bacillus Subtilis: Induction by Antibiotics That Inhibit Cell Wall Synthesis and by Lysozyme

Overview

Journal J Bacteriol

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialty Microbiology

Date 1996 Nov 1

PMID 8892834

Citations 32

Authors

A T Ulijasz

A Grenader

B Weisblum

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We have constructed a Bacillus subtilis strain in which expression of a vanH::lacZ gene fusion is regulated by VanR and VanS of Enterococcus faecium. This construct allows a nonpathogenic bacterial strain to be used as a model system for studying regulation of vancomycin resistance. Antibiotics and enzymes that affect cell wall biosynthesis and stability were tested for the ability to induce lacZ expression. As a result, fosfomycin and D-cycloserine were added to the group of peptidoglycan synthesis inhibitors shown to induce expression from the vanH promoter. Induction by cell wall hydrolytic enzymes, as well as by antibiotics whose actions may lead to the accumulation of chemically different peptidoglycan precursors, raises the possibility that models that postulate induction by peptidoglycan [correction of peptidodoglycan] precursors are wrong.

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