Peptidoglycan in bacterial cell walls is a biopolymer consisting of sugars and amino acids and plays important role in maintaining cell integrity from the environment. Its biosynthesis is a major target for antibiotics and the genes and enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathway have been well studied. However, we recently identified an alternative pathway in the early stage of peptidoglycan biosynthesis in Xanthomonas oryzae, a plant pathogen causing bacterial blight disease of rice. The distribution of the alternative pathway is limited to relatively few bacterial genera that contain many pathogenic species, including Xylella and Stenotrophomonas, besides Xanthomonas. Thus, the alternative pathway is an attractive target for the development of narrow-spectrum antibiotics specific to pathogens. In this minireview, we summarize the discovery of the alternative pathway and identification of its specific inhibitors.

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发现肽聚糖生物合成的替代途径：途径特异性抑制剂的新靶点

细菌细胞壁中的肽聚糖是一种由糖和氨基酸组成的生物聚合物，在从环境中维持细胞完整性方面发挥着重要作用。其生物合成是抗生素的主要靶标，参与生物合成途径的基因和酶已得到充分研究。然而，我们最近在米黄单胞菌（一种引起水稻白叶枯病的植物病原体）中发现了肽聚糖生物合成早期阶段的替代途径。替代途径的分布仅限于相对较少的细菌属，这些细菌属包含许多致病物种，包括 Xylella 和 Stenotrophomonas，除了 Xanthomonas。因此，替代途径是开发针对病原体的窄谱抗生素的有吸引力的目标。在这篇小评论中，