Phosphatidylglycerol homeostasis in glycerol-phosphate auxotrophs of Staphylococcus aureus

Background The balanced synthesis of membrane phospholipids, fatty acids and cell wall constituents is a vital facet of bacterial physiology, but there is little known about the biochemical control points that coordinate these activities in Gram-positive bacteria. In Escherichia coli, the glycerol-phosphate acyltransferase (PlsB) plays a key role in coordinating fatty acid and phospholipid synthesis, but pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus have a different acyltransferase (PlsY), and the headgroup of the major membrane phospholipid, phosphatidylglycerol (PtdGro), is used as a precursor for lipoteichoic acid synthesis.