Question

What would be the effect of an antibiotic that inhibits autolysins on bacterial cell division? ​

A) It would inhibit cellular elongation.

B) It would inhibit septum formation.

C) It would inhibit cell separation.

D) A and B.

E) A,BandC.

Answer 1

Option A is the colrrect answer.

Autolysins are bacterial enzymes that cleave and break bonds in the bacterial cell wall. Bacterial cell division by binary fission requires the growth of the peptidoglycan cell wall as the bacterium elongates. In rod-shaped bacteria, the cell wall grows at multiple locations along the cell. In the majority of cocci bacteria, the cell wall grows outward from the FtsZ ring in opposite directions. This process occurs by the severing of the peptidoglycan backbone and the synthesis of new cell wall material. Autolysins hydrolyse the glycosidic bonds that link N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid, and the gaps are filled in with additional cell wall material. If an antibiotic is used which inhibits autolysins, the cell wall will not be able to severed for the process of elongation.