Universiteit Leiden

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Dissertation

Off the wall: characterisation and exploitation of a cell wall deficient life style in filamentous actinomycetes

Almost all bacteria are enveloped by a cell wall that provides cellular protection.

Author
Ramijan, Carmiol A.K.
Date
17 September 2019
Links
Thesis in Leiden Repository

Almost all bacteria are enveloped by a cell wall that provides cellular protection. In this thesis I show that some filamentous actinomycetes have a surprising natural ability to adopt a cell wall-deficient life style. The formation of these newly identified S-cells is a transient morphological adaptation in response to hyperosmotic stress conditions. In contrast, prolonged exposure to cell wall-targeting antibiotics or osmotic stress leads to the formation of so-called L-form cells, which are mutants that can proliferate indefinitely without their cell wall. The exciting properties of L-forms were used to discover a new cell-wall biosynthetic enzyme and to study enzyme secretion in the absence of a cell wall.

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