THE ROLE OF PONA GENES IN BACTERIAL PATHOGENICITY AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE: A NARRATIVE REVIEW

The penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) polymerize and modify peptidoglycan, the stress-bearing component of the bacterial cell wall. As part of this process, the PBPs help to create the morphology of the peptidoglycan exoskeleton together with cytoskeleton proteins that regulate septum formation and cell shape. In this narrative review, the role of ponAs in pathogenicity has been discussed, in addition to its elaborate mechanisms for conferring antimicrobial resistance. In Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the selection of a stable ponA1 allele characterized by a Leu-421-Pro substitution located in an active site reduces 10 to up over 40-fold the acylation rate for beta-lactam antibiotics. This results in a high-level chromosomal resistance that can be stably maintained for decades globally, but only when combined with other resistance loci like penC. Furthermore, recent high-throughput sequencing data made interesting insights into colony-stimulating factors and burn out of the mycobacteria results in development clinical evolution that characterize spaceborne strains These genes are shown to parallel heritable traits and involved biosynthesis both desensitizing pathways centered e.g. catabolism (one pathway) but other emergent targets may intimate a continuing evolutionary race between such organisms.