A new class of cell wall-recycling L,D-carboxypeptidase determines β-lactam susceptibility and morphogenesis in Acinetobacter baumannii

The hospital-acquired pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii possesses a complex cell envelope that is key to its multidrug resistance and virulence. The bacterium, however, lacks many canonical enzymes that build the envelope in model organisms. Instead, A. baumannii contains a number of poorly annotated proteins that may allow alternative mechanisms of envelope biogenesis. We demonstrated previously that one of these unusual proteins, ElsL, is required for cell elongation and for withstanding antibiotics that attack the septal cell wall. Curiously, ElsL is composed of a leaderless YkuD-family domain usually found in secreted, cell-wall-modifying L,D-transpeptidases (LDTs). Here, we show that, rather than being an LDT, ElsL is actually a new class of cytoplasmic L,D-carboxypeptidase (LDC) that provides a critical step in cell-wall recycling previously thought to be missing from A. baumannii. Absence of ElsL impairs cell wall integrity, elongation, and intrinsic resistance due to buildup of murein tetrapeptide precursors, toxicity of which is bypassed by preventing muropeptide recycling. Multiple pathways in the cell become sites of vulnerability when ElsL is inactivated, including L,D-crosslink formation, cell division, and outer membrane lipid homoeostasis, reflecting its pleiotropic influence on cell envelope physiology. We thus reveal a novel class of cell-wall-recycling LDC critical to growth and homeostasis of A. baumannii and likely many other bacteria. ImportanceTo grow efficiently, resist antibiotics, and control the immune response, bacteria recycle parts of their cell wall. A key step in the typical recycling pathway is the reuse of cell wall peptides by an enzyme known as an LDC. Acinetobacter baumannii, an "urgent-threat" pathogen causing drug-resistant sepsis in hospitals, was previously thought to lack this enzymatic activity due to absence of a known LDC homolog. Here, we show that A. baumannii possesses this activity in the form of an enzyme class not previously associated with cell wall recycling. Absence of this protein intoxicates and weakens the A. baumannii cell envelope in multiple ways due to the accumulation of dead-end intermediates. Several other organisms of importance to health and disease encode homologs of the A. baumannii enzyme. This work thus reveals an unappreciated mechanism of cell wall recycling, manipulation of which may contribute to enhanced treatments targeting the bacterial envelope.