Enoylpyruvate transferase

Function

Enoylpyruvate transferase (MurA) or UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 1-carboxyvinyltransferase catalyzes the ligation of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UNAG). The pyruvate moiety makes the linker between the glycan and peptide portion of peptidoglycans. Thus MurA is essential for the biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls.[1].

  • MurC or UDP-N-acetylmuramate-L-alanine ligase adds L-alanine in the biosynthesis of peptidoglycans which form part of the protective bacterial cell wall[2].

Relevance

MurA is a target for antibiotics such as fosfomycin.

Structural highlights

MurA is composed of and . The active site is located at the interface of the two domains and binds the and .[3] Water molecules are shown as red spheres.

3D Structures of enoylpyruvate transferase

Enoylpyruvate transferase 3D structures


Structure of enoylpyruvate transferase complex with fosfomycin and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (PDB entry 3kr6)

Drag the structure with the mouse to rotate

ReferencesReferences

  1. Brown ED, Vivas EI, Walsh CT, Kolter R. MurA (MurZ), the enzyme that catalyzes the first committed step in peptidoglycan biosynthesis, is essential in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1995 Jul;177(14):4194-7. PMID:7608103
  2. Humnabadkar V, Prabhakar KR, Narayan A, Sharma S, Guptha S, Manjrekar P, Chinnapattu M, Ramachandran V, Hameed SP, Ravishankar S, Chatterji M. UDP-N-acetylmuramic acid l-alanine ligase (MurC) inhibition in a tolC mutant Escherichia coli strain leads to cell death. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2014 Oct;58(10):6165-71. doi: 10.1128/AAC.02890-14. , Epub 2014 Aug 11. PMID:25114134 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AAC.02890-14
  3. Skarzynski T, Mistry A, Wonacott A, Hutchinson SE, Kelly VA, Duncan K. Structure of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine enolpyruvyl transferase, an enzyme essential for the synthesis of bacterial peptidoglycan, complexed with substrate UDP-N-acetylglucosamine and the drug fosfomycin. Structure. 1996 Dec 15;4(12):1465-74. PMID:8994972

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