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PMID: 1938964 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Amount of peptidoglycan in cell walls of gram-negative bacteria.

Journal of bacteriology ·Vol. 173 ·No. 23 ·1991-12-00 ·Pages 7684-91

Wientjes FB, Woldringh CL, Nanninga N

Abstract

The amount of diaminopimelic acid (Dap) in the cell wall of Escherichia coli was measured in two ways. A radiochemical method first described by us in 1985 (F. B. Wientjes, E. Pas, P. E. M. Taschner, and C. L. Woldringh, J. Bacteriol. 164:331-337, 1985) is based on the steady-state incorporation of [3H]Dap during several generations. Knowing the cell concentration and the specific activity of the [3H]Dap, one can calculate the number of Dap molecules per sacculus. The second method measures the Dap content chemically in sacculi isolated from a known number of cells. With both methods, a value of 3.5 x 10(6) Dap molecules per sacculus was obtained. Combined with electron microscopic measurements of the surface area of the cells, the data indicate an average surface area per disaccharide unit of ca. 2.5 nm2. This finding suggests that the peptidoglycan is basically a monolayered structure.

MeSH Terms
Autoradiography Cell Wall/chemistry,metabolism Diaminopimelic Acid/analysis,metabolism Escherichia coli/chemistry,growth & development,metabolism Gram-Negative Bacteria/chemistry,metabolism Kinetics Peptidoglycan/analysis,biosynthesis Salmonella typhimurium/chemistry,growth & development,metabolism Species Specificity Tritium
Chemicals
Peptidoglycan Tritium Diaminopimelic Acid
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Wientjes F B
Department of Molecular Cell Biology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Woldringh C L
Nanninga N
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Article Info
Journal
Journal of bacteriology
Abbr.
J Bacteriol
ISSN
0021-9193
DOI
10.1128/jb.173.23.7684-7691.1991
Published
1991-12-00
Pages
7684-91
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
2985120R
PMCID
PMC212537
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/jb.173.23.7684-7691.1991 PMC Full Text View journal details
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