Abstract: Lysozyme is widely found in organisms and plays an important role in the innate immune system, which acts as a cationic antimicrobial protein and effectively hydrolyzes the β-1,4 glycosidic bond between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetylglucosamine in the cell wall of bacteria as a bactericidal agent. Pathogenic bacteria have evolved a wide range of mechanisms to evade lysozyme killing in order to colonize the host for a long time and cause host infection. However, despite many studies on lysozyme, there has been little research on the resistance of pathogenic bacteria to lysozyme. This paper presents a review of recent research in this area. The mechanism by which peptidoglycan modification and lysozyme inhibitors improve lysozyme resistance and the transcriptional regulation of the lysozyme resistance genes are discussed in detail, and future research directions and potential applications are also proposed.

Key words: pathogen; lysozyme; peptidoglycan modification; lysozyme inhibitor; transcriptional regulation