The mechanistic landscape of Lytic transglycosylase as targets for antibacterial therapy.

Lytic transglycosylases (Ltgs) are glycan strand cleaving enzymes whose role is poorly understood in the genesis of the bacterial envelope. They play multiple roles in all stages of a bacterial life cycle, by creating holes in the peptidoglycan that is necessary for cell division and separation. Here, we review recent advances in understanding the suitability of Ltgs as antibacterial drug targets. We specifically highlight a known inhibitor bulgecin A that is able to inhibit the function of structurally diverse Ltgs, as well as synergize with beta-lactams to improve its efficacy in antibiotic insensitive strains. Discovery of new antibiotics or new targets has been challenging. These studies could provide a viable path toward designing broad-spectrum inhibitors that targets Ltgs.

Datasets generated by shotgun sequencing of metagenomic libraries of the guajataca water reservoir.

The Guajataca Water Reservoir (GWR) was constructed for irrigation and to bring potable water to the northwestern region of Puerto Rico. The generation of DNA sequencing data from aquatic bodies (AB) using culture-independent approaches allows the investigation of the total microbial diversity as well as the potential anthropogenic impact. Metagenomic libraries were constructed for two GWR sampling sites and genomic information access through shotgun sequencing. After removing the bacterial host cell genome and the library fosmid sequences, the environmental genome was processed through Rapid Annotation using Subsystems Technology for Metagenomes (MG-RAST). The sequences consisted primarily of bacteria (95.70%), followed by viruses (2.94%), other sequences (0.28%) and eukaryote (0.09%). The most abundant species were Enterobacter cloacae (31%), Enterobacter sp. 638 (20%), Enterobacter cancerogenus (10%) and Escherichia coli (11%). Furthermore, the subsystem data showed that 13% of the genes belong to carbohydrates functionality, 12% to clustering-based-subsystems and another 9% related to virulence-disease-and-defense (out of which 8% pertain to genes of antibiotic resistance and toxic compounds). This unique data input will serve as a baseline to a better understanding not only the microbial communities present in the AB, but also the microbial activities with potential application in biotechnological and biomedical fields.