Acetylation is a posttranslational modification conserved in all domains of life that is carried out by N-acetyltransferases. While acetylation can occur on Nα-amino groups, this review will focus on Nε-acetylation of lysyl residues and how the posttranslational modification changes the cellular physiology of bacteria. Up until the late 1990s, acetylation was studied in eukaryotes in the context of chromatin maintenance and gene expression. At present, bacterial protein acetylation plays a prominent role in central and secondary metabolism, virulence, transcription, and translation. Given the diversity of niches in the microbial world, it is not surprising that the targets of bacterial protein acetyltransferases are very diverse, making their biochemical characterization challenging. The paradigm for acetylation in bacteria involves the acetylation of acetyl-CoA synthetase, whose activity must be tightly regulated to maintain energy charge homeostasis. While this paradigm has provided much mechanistic detail for acetylation and deacetylation, in this review we discuss advances in the field that are changing our understanding of the physiological role of protein acetylation in bacteria.

中文翻译：

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细菌中的蛋白质乙酰化。

乙酰化是通过N-乙酰基转移酶在生活的所有域中保守的翻译后修饰。尽管乙酰化作用可发生在Nα-氨基上，但本文将重点关注赖氨酰残基的Nε-乙酰化作用以及翻译后修饰如何改变细菌的细胞生理学。直到1990年代后期，在染色质维持和基因表达的背景下，对真核生物中的乙酰化进行了研究。目前，细菌蛋白乙酰化在中枢和次级代谢，毒力，转录和翻译中起着重要作用。考虑到微生物世界中生态位的多样性，细菌蛋白质乙酰基转移酶的靶标非常多样化也就不足为奇了，这使其生物化学特性具有挑战性。细菌中乙酰化的范例涉及乙酰辅酶A合成酶的乙酰化，必须严格调节其活性以保持能量稳态。尽管此范例为乙酰化和脱乙酰化提供了许多机理细节，但在本综述中，我们讨论了该领域的进展，这些进展正在改变我们对细菌中蛋白质乙酰化的生理作用的认识。