BACTERIAL ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE & PEPTIDOGLYCAN STRUCTURE

质谱数据对于我们的研究工作是不可或缺的。 细菌细胞壁肽聚糖的化学分离形式 青霉素耐药临床分离株。 最令人惊讶的 这一领域令人兴奋的发现是我们的认可， 肺炎球菌青霉素耐药临床菌株实验室 产生化学异常的肽聚糖 想必这 意想不到的变化是由于 外国 遗传物质 自然环境中的肺炎球菌菌株。 是 可以想象，表面化学的剧烈变化也可能 影响这些耐药菌株与人类的相互作用， 肺炎球菌感染期间的宿主。 我们的另一个大区域 涉及耐甲氧西林转座子突变体的研究 葡萄球菌也严重依赖于质量的可用性， 用于肽聚糖结构表征的光谱法。 一 其中甲氧西林表达的辅助突变体的数量 抗性被灭活的基因被发现是控制抗性的基因。 葡萄球菌肽聚糖的化学组成。 因为他们的 失活导致甲氧西林耐药性的大量降低， 这些辅助基因是新的抗菌药物的潜在靶点， 剂.

Mass spectrometric data have been indispensable for our work on the chemistry of bacterial cell wall peptidoglycans isolated form penicillin-resistant clinical isolates. One of the most surprising and exciting findings of this field was the recognition by our laboratory that penicillin-resistant clincal strains of pneumococci produce a chemically-abnormal peptidoglycan. Presumably this unexpected alteration is the result of foreign genetic material taken out by the pneumococcal strains in the natural environment. It is conceivable that the drastic alterations in surface chemistry may also influence the interaction of these resistant strains with their human hosts during pneumococcal infections. Another large area of our studies involving transposon mutants of methicillin-resistant staphylococci also relied heavily on the availability of mass spectrometry for structural characterization of peptidoglycan . A number of the auxiliary mutants in which the expression of methicillin resistance was inactivated were found to be in genes that control the chemical composition of staphylococcal peptidoglycan. Since their inactivation results in massive reduction in methicillin resistance, these auxiliary genes are potential targets for new antibacterial agents.