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Biosynthesis of wall‐linked teichuronic acid by a wall‐plus‐membrane preparation from Micrococcus luteus
Author(s) -
Weston A.,
Perkins H.R.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(77)80150-6
Subject(s) - micrococcus luteus , citation , library science , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biology , computer science , biochemistry , escherichia coli , gene
Cell-walls of Micrococcus luteus contain two major polymers, peptidoglycan and a polysaccharide called teichuronic acid. The latter was first extracted from it!. Zuteus cell walls with trichloroacetic acid and contained D-glucose and N-acetylmannosaminuronic acid in approximately equimolar amounts [l] . It was shown [2] to consist of repeating units of D-N-acetylmannosamin-pyranuronosyl$( 1 ,6)-D-glucose-linked cy [ 1,4] . The in vitro biosynthesis of the polysaccharide by a particulate membrane preparation required the addition of the nucleotide precursors, UDP-glucose, UDP-N-acetyl-D-mannosaminuronic acid (UDPManNAcUA) and UDP-iV-acetylglucosamine [3]. Synthesis of new polysaccharide is now demonstrated in a wall-plus-membrane preparation of M. Zuteus. As with the synthesis of peptidoglycan in this type of preparation [4-61, newly synthesized polysaccharide was either linked to pre-existing wall or found in the soluble fraction. Total polysaccharide synthesis was inhibited by bacitracin and tunicamycin but was not affected by benzylpenicillin. It was concluded that UDP-N-acetylglucosamine was incorporated by means of a lipid carrier into a link-piece between the polysaccharide and peptidoglycan. The inhibitory actions of tunicamycin and bacitracin suggest that the lipid carrier might be a polyisoprenyl phosphate.