Structural basis for the evolution of vancomycin resistance D,D-peptidases
Why this work is in the frame
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
Emergence of high-level resistance to the last resort glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin in Enterococcus spp. and its spread to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a public health threat. Resistance to vancomycin is due to substitution of the D-Ala-D-Ala terminus of cell wall precursors, which forms the antibiotic target, by D-Ala-D-Lac or D-Ala-D-Ser of low binding affinities. Resistance also requires depletion of the normal precursors catalyzed by the zinc-dependent D,D-peptidases VanX and VanY acting on dipeptide (D-Ala-D-Ala) or pentapeptide (UDP-MurNac-L-Ala-D-γ-Glu-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala), respectively. Some resistance operons encode VanXY D,D-peptidase acting on both substrates. Van D,D-peptidases represent attractive targets for combinational antimicrobial therapies to curb resistance; however, the molecular basis of their specificity remains poorly understood, hindering development of potent inhibitors. Therefore we undertook detailed structure-function analysis of VanXY and VanY enzymes. Obtained structural information revealed the substrate-binding site of VanXYC as an extended cavity suitable for binding of di- or pentapeptides, contrasting with previous results showing that VanX contains a small, shallow active site. Biochemical and mutagenesis analysis identified a mobile cap over the catalytic site of VanXYC as the key structural element involved in a switch between di- and pentapeptide hydrolysis. The structures also provided the molecular basis for selectivity towards Van-susceptible peptidoglycan precursors. Overall, this study illustrates the adaptability of the D,D-peptidase fold in response to antibiotic pressure via evolution of particular structural elements that modulate substrate specificity. The results open new opportunities for structure-guided development of Van D,D-peptidases specific inhibitors as glycopeptides adjuvants. This project has been funded by NIAID under Contracts No. HHSN272200700058C and HHSN272201200026C.
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it