D Estimation of LTA shed into the culture medium. After overnight culture, bacterial density was adjusted to the same OD600, and bacteria were removed by centrifugation. 100 μl of supernatant was blotted onto PVDF membrane. Bound LTA was detected using the same antibody used in the ELISA. Dilution steps of culture supernatant are indicated in the legend. LTA and glycolipids are also major determinants of cell-surface charge density. Therefore, hydrophobicity of wild-type and mutant bacteria was determined by measuring the adherence

to dodecane. Reduced adherence was observed for both 12030ΔbgsA and 12030ΔbgsB (Figure 5). However, 12030ΔbgsB had higher hydrophobicity than 12030ΔbgsA (44% wild type versus 33% 12030ΔbgsB and 22% 12030ΔbgsA). Bacterial physiology is not significantly impaired in a bgsB deletion mutant Previous studies have APR-246 order shown that LTA and glycolipids play important roles in growth, cell envelope integrity, and cell division CP673451 molecular weight [11]. However, despite the complete lack of glycolipids in the cell membrane and increased production of LTA, important characteristics of 12030ΔbgsB did not differ from wild-type bacteria: Mutants did not differ from wild-type bacteria in their growth kinetics in broth culture (data not shown). Cell morphology of 12030ΔbgsB determined by transmission electron microscopy was not affected (Additional file 1). Likewise, autolysis was not affected

in 12030ΔbgsB (Additional file 2). Since phosphatidylglycerol from the cell membrane is used as a substrate for polyglycerolphosphate synthesis by LtaS [10], we investigated whether increasing chain length of LTA affects cell membrane content of phosphatidylglycerol in the mutant. However, the semi-quantitative

analysis of extracts of total membrane lipids by TLC and staining with molybdenum blue did not reveal differences in phospholipid composition (Additional file 3). The composition and total amount of aminophospholipids as assessed semi-quantitatively by TLC also did not differ between the wild type Parvulin and 12030ΔbgsB (Additional file 3). Neither did analysis of non-covalently bound surface proteins by SDS-PAGE reveal major differences between the bgsB deletion mutant and the parental strain (Additional file 3). Deletion of the glucosyltransferase bgsB has no effect on resistance to complement, antimicrobial peptides, and opsonophagocytic killing LTA has been shown to be critical for resistance against killing by cationic antimicrobial peptides [1] and has been identified as a target of opsonic Selumetinib molecular weight antibodies against E. faecalis [4]. To characterize the sensitivity of 12030ΔbgsB to host defense mechanisms, we assessed its resistance to antimicrobial peptides nisin, polymyxin B, and colistin. For nisin, no difference was found between the wild-type and the bgsB deletion mutant (Additional file 4). A two-fold lower concentration of polymyxin B and colistin was required for killing of 12030ΔbgsB compared to the isogenic wild type strain.