N-acetylmannosaminyl(1----4)N-acetylglucosamine, a linkage unit between glycerol teichoic acid and peptidoglycan in cell walls of several Bacillus strains

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Abstract
The structure of teichoic acid-glycopeptide complexes isolated from lysozyme digests of cell walls of B. subtilis (4 strains) and B. licheniformis (1 strain) was studied to obtain information on the structural relationship between glycerol teichoic acids and their linkage saccharides. Each preparation of the complexes contained equimolar amounts of muramic acid 6-phosphate and mannosamine in addition to glycopeptide components and glycerol teichoic acid components characteristic of the strain. Upon treatment with 47% HF, these preparations gave, in common, a hexosamine-containing disaccharide, which was identified as N-acetylmannosaminyl(1 .fwdarw. 4)N-acetylglucosamine, along with large amounts of glycosylglycerols presumed to be the dephosphorylated repeating units of teichoic acid chains. The glycosylglycerol obtained from each bacterial strain was identified as follows: B. subtilis AHU 1392, glucosyl.alpha.(1 .fwdarw. 2)glycerol; B. subtilis AHU 1235, glucosyl.beta.(1 .fwdarw. 2)glycerol; B. subtilis AHU 1035 and AHU 1037, glucosyl.alpha.(1 .fwdarw. 6)galactosyl.alpha.(1 .fwdarw. 1 or 3)glycerol; B. licheniformis AHU 1371, galactosyl.alpha.(1 .fwdarw. 2)glycerol. By means of Smith degradation, the galactose residues in the teichoic acid-glycopeptide complexes from B. subtilis AHU 1035 and AHU 1037 and B. licheniformis AHU 1371 were shown to be involved in the backbone chains of the teichoic acid moieties. Thus, the glycerol teichoic acids in the cell walls of 5 bacterial strains seem to be joined to peptidoglycan through a common linkage disaccharide, N-acetylmannosaminyl(1 .fwdarw. 4)N-acetylglucosamine, irrespective of the structural diversity in the glycosidic branches and backbone chains.