Research in our laboratory is focused towards understanding how bacteria elongate, divide, and split their cell walls during cell cycle to successfully generate two equal daughter cells. We take a multi-disciplinary approach including genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, and genomics to address these questions. We use a well-known Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium Escherichia coli as our primary model system. Our most significant contribution in this field was identification of a rate-limiting cleavage step in the growth and synthesis of peptidoglycan, a unique constituent of bacterial cell wall. We expect that our work facilitates better understanding of fundamental aspects of bacterial physiology thereby providing novel strategies for development of alternate antimicrobial therapeutics.

Selected Publications

Rajguru V, Chatterjee S, Garde S, and Reddy M 2024. Crosslink cleaving enzymes: the smart autolysins that remodel the bacterial cell wall. Trends in Microbiology doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2023.11.004

Som, N and Reddy, M. 2023. Cross-talk between phospholipid synthesis and peptidoglycan expansion by a cell wall hydrolase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA.120 (24), e2300784120.

Bahadur R, Chodisetti PK and Reddy M. 2021. Cleavage of Braun's lipoprotein Lpp from the bacterial peptidoglycan by a paralog of L,D-transpeptidases, LdtF. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 118: 19 (2).

Chodisetti PK and Reddy M. 2019. Peptidoglycan hydrolase of an unusual cross-link specificity contributes to bacterial cell wall synthesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 116: 7825-7830.