Pneumococci have an absolute nutritional requirement for choline. Choline is incorporated
as phosphocholine (PCho) into lipoteichoic (LTA) and teichoic acid (TA). The PCho residues
are required for transformability, the activity of autolysins, the separation of daughter cells
after cell division and for anchoring a family of surface proteins which play important roles in
pneumococcal infection. The genes encoding the enzymes for PCho incorporation are
described. Two strains that acquired the ability to grow in the absence of choline are …