A new Achilles heel of the bacterial cell wall

The bacterial cell wall must be constantly remodeled in order to grow and divide. This involves the close coordination of lytic enzymes and peptidoglycan synthesis. In their study published in Nature Communications, researchers led by Martin Thanbichler have now found that a central regulator can control completely different classes of autolysins. Since many antibiotics target the bacterial cell wall, these findings may contribute to the development of new therapeutic strategies against bacterial infections.