Question

What does lipid II during pg synthesis?

Answer 1

Lipid II is one of the precursors used in the sythesis of the cell wall in bacteria. During peptidoglycan(PG) synthesis, lipid II acts as a shutter carrier of the peptidoglycan subunits outside the cytoplasm so that the peptide monomers can polymerize and cross link to the other cell wall.

When MurG transferase catalyses the addition of N-acetylglucosamine to lipid I, Lipid II is made. It has a sugar- pentapeptide monomer which it flips to the periphery of the cell from the cytoplasm where it crosslinks and polymerises into peptidoglycan, the primary constituent of the bacterial cell wall.