CHEMISTRY OF CELL WALLS 



33 



TABLE 12 



Relative Molecular Proportions of the Principal Amino Acids in 



Cell Walls 



Glutamic 

 Walls from DAP * Acid Glycine Alanine 



* a,e-diaminopimelic acid. 

 Reference 37. 



instances very similar ratios of amino acids were observed. 

 No one would claim that these results represent anything 

 more than the gross amino acid composition of the walls, 

 as they give no indication of the distribution in the various 

 wall components such as the mucopeptides and teichoic 

 acids or other special structures that may yet remain to be 

 discovered. 



Apart from the peptide residue of the nucleotide isolated 

 from penicillin-inhibited Staphylococcus aureus (Park,^^ 

 Park and Strominger ^^), there are no published accounts of 

 the sequence of amino acids in peptides derived directly 

 from cell walls. 



In addition to the known amino acids, bacterial walls 

 have yielded upon hydrolysis several unknown ninhydrin- 

 reacting constituents.^3,23,24,37 Cummins and Harrises 



