lectures 1-12 Flashcards
(121 cards)
How many bacteria are there estimated to be?
0.8-1.6 million bacterial species
Where are bacteria found?
- plants, animals, soil, water, air, arctic ice, volcanic vents (everywhere)
How much bacteria does skin, teeth and colon have?
Skin: 5-50 x 10^3/sq inch
Teeth: 5- x 10^6/sq inch
Colon: 3 x 10^11 /g
What are the features of a bacterial cell?
- No mitochondria (functions performed by cytoplasmic membrane)
- Ribosomes (70s-30s and 50s subunits) free in the cytoplasm
- No ER
- Single chromosome (nucleoid) - no nuclear membrane
What is the difference between Gram-negative and Gram-positive
- gram negative has a much thinner cell wall (peptidoglycan), also outer membrane
- Gram positive has a thicker cell wall
Why is the cell wall important?
- necessary for viability
- one of the most important sites for attack by antibiotics
- Provides ligands for adherence and receptor sites for drugs or viruses
- activates host signaling cascades
What is unique about peptidoglycan?
- Unique to bacteria
- provides mechanical strength
- not a ‘hard-shell’, it is flexible
- connected by peptide crosslinks
- biosynthesis is disrupted by many cell wall antibiotics
What is peptidoglycan made of?
B-14, glycosidic linkages (glycan chain, sugar)
- side chain (peptides)
What are peptide chains made of?
5 different amino acids:
- L-alanine
- D-glutamate
- L- diaminopimelic
- D - alanine
- D- alanine
What do peptide chains do in gram-negative bacteria?
there is a direct cross link between the 3rd and 4th group. There is a direct cross-link in most Gram-negative bacteria
What happens to peptide chains in Gram-positive peptidoglycan
-There is a cross-bridge in most Gram-positive bacteria, an anchoring site for some cell-wall proteins
How does penicillin affect peptide side chains in peptidoglycan?
-It prevents linking two side chains together
What is the structure of a Gram-negative cell envelope?
- Outer membrane (phospholipid inner face, LPS outer face)
- Inner membrane (phospholipid on inner and outer face)
What is the function of the outer membrane in bacteria?
- mechanical stability (helps with structure)
- defensive player - protects against antibiotics, bacteriophages, antimicrobial peptides
- permeability barrier
What is LPS (located in the outer membrane)?
It is a barrier against hydrophobic agents, detergents, bile, antibiotics
- it forms a tightly packed layer - strong lateral interactions between LPS molecules
- proinflammatory: interacts with receptors on macrophages and B-cells to cytokine release (can cause endotoxic shock)
What is the structure of LPS?
-O-antigen (3-5 sugars repeated)
-Core oligosaccharide (Glc – D-Galactose, Gal – D-Glucose, Hep – Heptose, KDO – Keto deoxyoctanate
-Lipid A (outer membrane)
+it has a conserved structure
What is a LPS?
It is proinflammatory and binds to the TLR4 and triggers upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Which can cause shock
What are the 3 forms of LPS?
- Lipid A
- Rough LPS (poor adherence to host cells)
-Smooth LPS (good adherence to host cells)
What happens when the O-antigen is lost?
-It allows the bacteria to “hide” from the host
What happens when bacteria can modify their LPS?
- dampen proinflammatory immune responses or provide resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs)
What is another thing that gram-positive bacteria have (not a thicker cell wall)
- They have teichoic acids
What are teichoic acids (found in gram-positive bacteria)?
-They are negatively charged polymers there are 2 types
1. Lipoteichoic acid (membrane-anchored)
2. Wall teichoic acid (peptidoglycan-anchored)
What is the role of teichoic acids?
- Binding to receptors + surfaces
- negative surface charge
- growth and division
- host cell recognition
- protection from harmful molecules
6 Cation homeostasis
What can happen to teichoic acids?
They can be modified, but these modifications are not always beneficial: glycosylation may increase susceptibility to bacteriophages, D-alanine can reduce ability to adhere to host cells and establish infection