{"doi":"10.1016/j.jbc.2025.110642","title":"A Pseudomonas aeruginosa endolytic muramidase targets cell-wall peptidoglycan in bacterial competition","abstract":"Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that frequently resides in multispecies communities. During chronic infections, P. aeruginosa employs a diverse arsenal of antibacterial weapons to compete with other bacteria for resources and space. Using genetic and biochemical approaches, we identified a type VI secretion system-dependent antibacterial effector-immunity pair, PseM (P. aeruginosa secreted endolytic muramidase) and PA0990 in P. aeruginosa. Our findings demonstrate that PseM functions as an endolytic muramidase, targeting prey bacteria by hydrolytically cleaving cell-wall peptidoglycan, whereas its immunity partner PA0990 provides self-protection. The X-ray crystal structure of PseM reveals a homodimeric configuration, with its active site formed by segments from both monomers. Through structural analysis and macromolecular docking simulations, we further elucidate the substrate-binding residues critical for the activity of PseM. Importantly, we show that PseM contributes to P. aeruginosa growth among bacterial competition. Together, these results uncover a novel antibacterial mechanism mediated by PseM, highlighting the dynamic nature of interspecies and intraspecies competition within bacterial populations.","journal":"Journal of Biological Chemistry","year":2025,"id":573534,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9582,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1480273,"name":"Lin Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-9295-1684","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364756,"name":"Mijoon Lee","orcid":"0000-0001-7432-0427","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1480274,"name":"W. C. Yan","orcid":"0009-0003-2618-9526","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":268484,"name":"Qian Liu","orcid":"0000-0001-8897-5117","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1480275,"name":"Chenchen Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-3618-1670","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":739836,"name":"Rhona Feltzer","orcid":"0000-0002-2071-1323","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364757,"name":"Dušan Hesek","orcid":"0000-0001-6288-8824","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364759,"name":"Shahriar Mobashery","orcid":"0000-0002-7695-7883","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":397047,"name":"Haihua Liang","orcid":"0000-0001-9639-1867","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1480276,"name":"Liang Zhang","orcid":"0000-0003-0102-3207","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":480577,"name":"Tietao Wang","orcid":"0000-0001-8540-436X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":55,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:32.445190Z","pmid":"40885384","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}