Gonorrhea infections are becoming more difficult to treat due to the prevalence of strains exhibiting resistance to antibiotics and new therapeutic approaches are needed. N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine amidase (AmiC) from Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a hydrolase that functions during cell division by cleaving the bond between the N-acetylmuramyl and L-alanine moieties of peptidoglycan. Inhibiting this enzyme offers the prospect of restoring the efficacy of existing antibiotics as treatments against N. gonorrhoeae. Of its two domains, the C-terminal domain catalyses the hydrolysis reaction and the N-terminal domain (NTD) is believed to target AmiC to its peptidoglycan substrate. Here, we report the 1H, 13C, and 15N resonance assignments of a 131 amino acid NTD construct of AmiC by heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy. The assignments represent the first for N. gonorrhoeae AmiC-NTD, laying the groundwork for detailed examination of its structure and dynamics, and providing a platform for new drug discovery efforts to address antimicrobial-resistant N. gonorrhoeae.
Keywords: Amidase; Antibiotic resistance; Drug target; Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Peptidoglycan metabolism.