TcyABC

Genetic basis of glycine and L-serine toxicity in Staphylococcus aureus and the case for glycine as an antibiotic adjuvant

The toxicity of the amino acids glycine and L-serine at high concentrations in bacteria was discovered decades ago. In this work, we used deep transposon insertion sequencing (Tn-seq) experiments to determine the genes necessary to tolerate excess L-serine, diglycine or glycine in the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Our results indicate that intracellular accumulation of specific counterbalancing amino acids--such as alanine in excess glycine--is the primary mechanism of resistance to...