Crystal Structure of MraY, an Essential Membrane Enzyme for Bacterial Cell Wall Synthesis

Abstract

Moving Bricks with MraY Peptidoglycan, the building brick of bacterial cell walls, is synthesized in the cytoplasm and must be transported across the cell membrane. To achieve this, it is attached to a carrier lipid by the integral membrane protein MraY. MraY is targeted by natural antibacterials and is a promising antibiotic target. Chung et al. (p. 1012 ) report the crystal structure of MraY at 3.3 Å resolution. The structure, together with mutational mapping, outlines the location of the active site and provides interesting hints for how the enzyme binds the substrate and catalyzes attachment to the carrier lipid.