ABSTRACT
The methicillin resistance factor encoded by
fmtA
is a core member of the
Staphylococcus aureus
cell wall stimulon, but its function has remained elusive for the past two decades. First identified as a factor that affects methicillin resistance in
S. aureus
strains, FmtA was later shown to interact with teichoic acids and to localize to the cell division septum. We have made a breakthrough in understanding FmtA function. We show that FmtA hydrolyzes the ester bond between
d
-Ala and the backbone of teichoic acids, which are polyglycerol-phosphate or polyribitol-phosphate polymers found in the
S. aureus
cell envelope. FmtA contains two conserved motifs found in serine active-site penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) and β-lactamases. The conserved SXXK motif was found to be important for the
d
-amino esterase activity of FmtA. Moreover, we show that deletion of
fmtA
(Δ
fmtA
) led to higher levels of
d
-Ala in teichoic acids, and this effect was reversed by complementation of Δ
fmtA
with
fmtA
. The positive charge on
d
-Ala partially masks the negative charge of the polyol-phosphate backbone of teichoic acids; hence, a change in the
d
-Ala content will result in modulation of their charge. Cell division, biofilm formation, autolysis, and colonization are among the many processes in
S. aureus
affected by the
d
-Ala content and overall charge of the cell surface teichoic acids. The esterase activity of FmtA and the regulation of
fmtA
suggest that FmtA functions as a modulator of teichoic acid charge, thus FmtA may be involved in
S. aureus
cell division, biofilm formation, autolysis, and colonization.
IMPORTANCE
Teichoic acids are involved in cell division, cell wall synthesis, biofilm formation, attachment of bacteria to artificial surfaces, and colonization. However, the function of teichoic acids is not fully understood. Modification by glycosylation and/or
d
-alanylation of the polyol-phosphate backbone of teichoic acids is important in the above cell processes. The intrinsic negative charge of teichoic acid backbone plays a role in the charge and/or pH of the bacterial surface, and
d
-alanylation represents a means through which bacteria modulate the charge or the pH of their surfaces. We discovered that FmtA removes
d
-Ala from teichoic acids. We propose FmtA may provide a temporal and spatial regulation of the bacterial cell surface charge in two ways, by removing the
d
-Ala from LTA to make it available to wall teichoic acid (WTA) in response to certain conditions and by removing it from WTA to allow the cell to reset its surface charge to a previous condition.
Methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus requires glycosylated wall teichoic acids
