Occurrence of N-glycolylmuramic acid in bacterial cell walls

Acyl Type of Bacterial Cell Wall: Its Simple Identification by Colorimetric Method

“…For the sake of convenience, "glycolyl type" cell wall will be proposed for the name of this kind of bacterial cell wall, if ordinary cell wall could be called "acetyl type," concerning the acyl type of the glycan part of the peptidoglycan. Although it was not decided in this work which amino sugar is acylated with the glycolyl group, the occurrence of N-glycolylmuramic acid has been shown by Azuma et al in the strains of M. phlei ATCC 356, M. tuberculosis BCG, and M. kansasii P21 (9), and by Michel and the co-worker in N. kirovani (10), N. asteroides R399, and N. caviae IM 1381 (11).…”

“…23 Bacillus cereus AHU 1356 and T strains (4)(5)(6), and N-glycolylation on the muramyl residue in some strains of mycobacteria and nocardiae. PETIT, ADAM, and others (7,8) reported that Mycobacterium smegmatis had an atypical glycan strand in its cell wall which was identified to be a repeated unit of disaccharide, N-acetylglucosaminyl-~3-1,4-N-glycolylmuramic acid, which was soon demonstrated by AzUMA et al (9) to be also present in three other mycobacteria but not in Corynebacterium fermentans or Streptomyces albus. The same glycan structure was also found in three strains of Nocardia (10,11).…”

“…However, the method for determination of glycan structure so far reported is considerably time-consuming and laborious. The procedure involves preparation of a purified cell wall, enzymic fragmentation, gel filtration, and chromatographic or mass spectrometric identification (7)(8)(9)(10)(11).…”

Adjuvant‐Polyarthritogenicity of Cell Walls of Mycobacteria, Nocardia and Corynebacteria

“…In previous papers, we had shown that the principal chemical structure of cell walls of corynebacteria, nocardia and mycobacteria, and that of the wax D fraction from mycobacteria were of a "mycolic acidarabinogalactan-mucopeptide" complex [5]. The adjuvanticity in immune response of the cell walls and their derivatives prepared from corynebacteria, nocardia and mycobacteria were also reported [2,4].…”

“…Wood et al [20] and Jolles and his co-workers [7,8] had shown relationships between the chemical structure and arthritogenicity of mycobacterial wax D and cell walls. They had concluded that the arthritogenicity of wax D and cell walls was lost by acetylation, but rats injected with acetylated wax D were protected against the arthritogenicity of unaltered wax D [8].In previous papers, we had shown that the principal chemical structure of cell walls of corynebacteria, nocardia and mycobacteria, and that of the wax D fraction from mycobacteria were of a "mycolic acidarabinogalactan-mucopeptide" complex [5]. The adjuvanticity in immune response of the cell walls and their derivatives prepared from corynebacteria, nocardia and mycobacteria were also reported [2,4].…”