Disease relevance of mepA

• Cloning and characterization of mepA, the structural gene of the penicillin-insensitive murein endopeptidase from Escherichia coli [1].
• Melanin production by Rhizobium meliloti GR4 is linked to nonsymbiotic plasmid pRmeGR4b: cloning, sequencing, and expression of the tyrosinase gene mepA [2].

High impact information on mepA

• E. coli strains carrying multicopy plasmids with the mepA gene produced 5-6-fold more endopeptidase and secreted it into the periplasm, where it appeared to function normally in vivo since the release of cell wall peptides into the medium increased in parallel [1].
• Open reading frames similar to E. coli mepA, glk, and genes encoding ATP-coupled exporters were found in the sequence [3].
• Genetic mapping studies show that the mutation mepA is located close to aroC (50 min) and the other mutation, mepB, is very close to malE (91 min) on the chromosome [4].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of mepA

• N-terminal sequence determination with the isolated endopeptidase protein showed that this enzyme is coded by the mepA gene and that it is synthesized initially with an N-terminal signal peptide [1].

References