Properties of the Penicillin‐Binding Proteins of Escherichia coli K12

Abstract

Benzyl[14 C] penicillin binds to six proteins with molecular weights of between 40000 and 91000 in the inner membrane of Escherichia coli. Two additional binding proteins with molecular weights of 29000 and 32000 were sometimes detected. All proteins were accessible to benzyl[14 C]penicillin in whole cells. Proteins 5 and 6 released bound benzyl[14 C]penicillin with half times of 5 and 19 min at 30 °C but the other binding proteins showed less than 50% release during a 60‐min period at 30 °C. The rate of release of bound penicillin from some of the proteins was greatly stimulated by 2‐mercaptoethanol and neutral hydroxylamine. Release of benzyl[14 C]penicillin did not occur if the binding proteins were denatured in anionic detergent and so was probably enzymic. No additional binding proteins were detected with two [14 C]cephalosporins. These β‐lactams bound to either all or some of those proteins to which benzyl[14 C]penicillin bound. No binding proteins have been detected in the outer membrane of E. coli with any β‐[14 C]lactam. The binding of a range of unlabelled penicillins and cephalosporins were studied by measuring their competition for the binding of benzyl[14 C]penicillin to the six penicillin‐binding proteins. These results, together with those obtained by direct binding experiments with β‐[14 C]lactams, showed that penicillins bind to all six proteins but that at least some cephalosporins fail to bind, or bind very slowly, to proteins 2, 5 and 6, although they bind to the other proteins. Since these cephalosporins inhibited cell division and caused cell lysis at concentrations where we could detect no binding to proteins 2, 5 and 6, we believe that these latter proteins are not the targets at which β‐lactams bind to elicit the above physiological responses. The binding properties of proteins 1, 3 and 4 correlate reasonably well with those expected for the above killing targets.