Selective extraction of polymers from cell walls of Gram-positive bacteria (Short Communication)

Abstract
Brief heating of Bacillus Licheniformis cell walls at 100°C in aqueous buffers of pH3.0–4.0 removes some polymers but not others from the mucopeptides. For example, relatively undegraded teichuronic acid can be extracted at 100°C in 20min at pH3.0 whereas the teichoic acids are not removed. Similar specificity can be shown with walls from three other species of micro-organism.