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New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems

In the environment bacteria share their habitat with a great diversity of organisms, from microbes to humans, animals and plants. In these complex communities, the production of extracellular effectors is a common strategy to control the biodiversity by interfering with the growth and/or viability o...

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Autores principales: Aliashkevich, Alena, Alvarez, Laura, Cava, Felipe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5898190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29681896
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.00683
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author Aliashkevich, Alena
Alvarez, Laura
Cava, Felipe
author_facet Aliashkevich, Alena
Alvarez, Laura
Cava, Felipe
author_sort Aliashkevich, Alena
collection PubMed
description In the environment bacteria share their habitat with a great diversity of organisms, from microbes to humans, animals and plants. In these complex communities, the production of extracellular effectors is a common strategy to control the biodiversity by interfering with the growth and/or viability of nearby microbes. One of such effectors relies on the production and release of extracellular D-amino acids which regulate diverse cellular processes such as cell wall biogenesis, biofilm integrity, and spore germination. Non-canonical D-amino acids are mainly produced by broad spectrum racemases (Bsr). Bsr’s promiscuity allows it to generate high concentrations of D-amino acids in environments with variable compositions of L-amino acids. However, it was not clear until recent whether these molecules exhibit divergent functions. Here we review the distinctive biological roles of D-amino acids, their mechanisms of action and their modulatory properties of the biodiversity of complex eco-systems.
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spelling pubmed-58981902018-04-20 New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems Aliashkevich, Alena Alvarez, Laura Cava, Felipe Front Microbiol Microbiology In the environment bacteria share their habitat with a great diversity of organisms, from microbes to humans, animals and plants. In these complex communities, the production of extracellular effectors is a common strategy to control the biodiversity by interfering with the growth and/or viability of nearby microbes. One of such effectors relies on the production and release of extracellular D-amino acids which regulate diverse cellular processes such as cell wall biogenesis, biofilm integrity, and spore germination. Non-canonical D-amino acids are mainly produced by broad spectrum racemases (Bsr). Bsr’s promiscuity allows it to generate high concentrations of D-amino acids in environments with variable compositions of L-amino acids. However, it was not clear until recent whether these molecules exhibit divergent functions. Here we review the distinctive biological roles of D-amino acids, their mechanisms of action and their modulatory properties of the biodiversity of complex eco-systems. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-04-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5898190/ /pubmed/29681896 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.00683 Text en Copyright © 2018 Aliashkevich, Alvarez and Cava. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Aliashkevich, Alena
Alvarez, Laura
Cava, Felipe
New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems
title New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems
title_full New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems
title_fullStr New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems
title_full_unstemmed New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems
title_short New Insights Into the Mechanisms and Biological Roles of D-Amino Acids in Complex Eco-Systems
title_sort new insights into the mechanisms and biological roles of d-amino acids in complex eco-systems
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5898190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29681896
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.00683
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