Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

Autolysins are bacteriolytic enzymes that are capable of hydrolyzing the cell wall peptidoglycan. These potentially lethal autolysins are important in several processes including cell growth, cell-wall turnover, peptidoglycan maturation, cell division, separation, protein secretion, differentiation and pathogenicity. In this chapter, firstly we focused on peptidoglycan amidases, their classification and secondly, we studied the structural stability of amidase-03 from Bacillus antharacis. Unlike other amidases, amidase-03 in B. anthracis plays an important role in innate immunity by decreasing the inflammatory response in host by hydrolyzing the bond between glycan and peptide. So the structure stability of amidase-03 is important to assess its function and role during infection. The chapter includes the prediction of amidase-03 structure using bioinformatics tools and structural analysis using molecular dynamics simulation.

Keywords: autolysins, amidase, bacillus antharacis