68 MICROBIAL CELL WALLS 



sented in Table 21. Little mucopeptide synthesis occurred 

 in the presence of glucose alone, but a net increase of about 

 60% took place when glycine or ammonium chloride was 

 added to the glucose. Thus Mandelstam and Rogers *^ 

 showed that it was possible to study the synthesis of wall 

 mucopeptides dissociated to a large measure from protein 

 synthesis. 



Hancock and Park ** studied the incorporation of p^q 

 amino acids into cell-wall and protein fractions of Staphylo- 

 coccus aureus in the presence and absence of chlorampheni- 

 col. They showed that the incorporation of typical cell- 

 wall amino acids, such as lysine, glycine, alanine, and glu- 

 tamic acid, into the wall was inhibited only to the extent of 

 4 to 8% by chloramphenicol when the cells were transferred 



TABLE 21 



Conditions for the Synthesis of Mucopeptide 



Washed staphylococci incubated 1 hour in buffer containing 1% 

 glucose and one or more amino acids at a final concentration of 

 400 Mg/ml. Bacteria disintegrated and mucopeptide isolated. 



Increase in 

 Additions Mucopeptide % 



Reference 41. 



