Effects of epsilon-Poly-L-lysine on the cell wall of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its involved antimicrobial mechanism

摘要

epsilon-Poly-L-lysine (epsilon-PL) is widely used as an antibacterial agent because of its broad antimicrobial spectrum. However, the antimicrobial mechanism of epsilon-FL against Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) is only vaguely described. Especially, it is widely accepted that membrane disruption is its main antimicrobial mode of action, but its effect on the cell wall remains unclear. In this study, the effects of epsilon-FL on cell wall of S. cerevisiae were investigated, and the possible action mode of epsilon-PL on the cell wall was discussed. The results showed that epsilon-PL affected significantly the cell wall composition such as beta-1, 3-glucan, mannosylphosphate and chitin, and caused cell wall more fragile. The cell wall permeability was significantly increased. Furthermore, epsilon-PL induced the intracellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as lead to DNA fragmentation. These results indicate that epsilon-FL may have a complicated antimicrobial mode of action with multi-target mechanisms against S. cerevisiae cells. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.