Molecular Biology
of Corynebacteria and Mycobacteria

The biosynthesis of individual MA and AG cell wall compounds has been studied for a long time primarily because the production of these compounds is essential for mycobacterial survival. As a matter of fact, the AG and MA synthesis is the target of several known antituberculous drugs, e.g. isoniazid, ethionamide, ethambutol. In the last few years, many progresses have been made using C. glutamicum as a model microorganism, because, in contrast to mycobacteria we and others showed that viable mutants totally or severely deprived of mycolates or synthesizing a truncated AG could be obtained. Despite the fact that a large part of the cytoplasmic steps of these biosynthetic pathways has been elucidated, only little information is available regarding the trafficking of these cell wall components across the whole cell envelope and their final assembly to yield this very complex and fascinating architecture.