Tracking a bug’s life: We describe the first direct and universal approach for labeling peptidoglycan (PG) of diverse bacteria by exploiting the surprising tolerance of cells for incorporating unnatural D-amino acids of various sizes and functionalities. These non-toxic D-amino acids preferably label the sites of active PG synthesis, enabling fine spatiotemporal tracking of cell wall dynamics in phylogenetically and morphologically diverse bacteria.

Peptidoglycan (PG), an essential structure in the cell walls of the vast majority of bacteria, is critical for division and maintaining cell shape and hydrostatic pressure1. Bacteria comprising the Chlamydiales were thought to be one of the few exceptions. Chlamydia encodes genes for PG biosynthesis2–7 and exhibits susceptibility to "anti-PG" antibiotics8,9, yet attempts to detect PG in any chlamydial species have proven unsuccessful (the ‘chlamydial anomaly’10). We employed a novel approach to metabolically label chlamydial PG using D-amino acid dipeptide probes and click chemistry. Replicating Chlamydia trachomatis was labeled with the probes throughout its biphasic, developmental life cycle, and differential probe incorporation experiments conducted in the presence of ampicillin is consistent with the presence of chlamydial PG modifying enzymes. These findings culminate 50 years of speculation and debate concerning the chlamydial anomaly and are the strongest evidence to date that chlamydial species possess functional PG.

Fluorescent D-amino acids (FDAAs) are efficiently incorporated into the peptidoglycan of diverse bacterial species at the sites of active peptidoglycan biosynthesis, allowing specific and covalent probing of bacterial growth with minimal perturbation. Here, we provide a protocol for the synthesis of four FDAAs emitting light in blue, green or red and for their use in peptidoglycan labeling of live bacteria. Our modular synthesis protocol gives easy access to a library of different FDAAs made with commercially available fluorophores. FDAAs can be synthesized in a typical chemistry laboratory in 2–3 days. The simple labeling procedure involves addition of the FDAAs to the bacterial sample for the desired labeling duration and stopping further label incorporation by fixation or by washing away excess dye. We discuss several scenarios for the use of these labels including short or long labeling durations, and the combination of different labels in pure culture or complex environmental samples. Depending on the experiment, FDAA labeling can take as little as 30 s for a rapidly growing species such as Escherichia coli.

The peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall is a peptide cross-linked glycan polymer essential for bacterial division and maintenance of cell shape and hydrostatic pressure. Bacteria in the Chlamydiales were long thought to lack PG until recent advances in PG labeling technologies revealed the presence of this critical cell wall component in Chlamydia trachomatis. In this study, we utilize bio-orthogonal D-amino acid dipeptide probes combined with super-resolution microscopy to demonstrate that four pathogenic Chlamydiae species each possess a ≤ 140 nm wide PG ring limited to the division plane during the replicative phase of their developmental cycles. Assembly of this PG ring is rapid, processive, and linked to the bacterial actin-like protein, MreB. Both MreB polymerization and PG biosynthesis occur only in the intracellular form of pathogenic Chlamydia and are required for cell enlargement, division, and transition between the microbe’s developmental forms. Our kinetic, molecular, and biochemical analyses suggest that the development of this limited, transient, PG ring structure is the result of pathoadaptation by Chlamydia to an intracellular niche within its vertebrate host.

Chlamydiae are important pathogens and symbionts, with unique cell biology features. They lack the cell-division protein FtsZ, which functions in maintaining cell shape and orchestrating cell division in almost all other bacteria. In addition, the existence of peptidoglycan (PG) in chlamydial cell envelopes has been highly controversial. Using electron cryotomography, mass spectrometry and fluorescent labeling dyes, here we show that some environmental chlamydiae have cell-wall sacculi consisting of an unusual PG type. Treatment with fosfomycin (a PG synthesis inhibitor) leads to lower infection rates and aberrant cell shapes, suggesting that PG synthesis is crucial for the chlamydial life cycle. Our findings demonstrate for the first time the presence of PG in a member of the Chlamydiae. They also present a unique example of a bacterium with a PG sacculus but without FtsZ, challenging the current hypothesis that it is the absence of a cell wall that renders FtsZ non-essential.