Wall peptidoglycan in Aerococcus viridans strains 201 Evans and ATCC 11563 and in Gaffkya homari strain ATCC 10400

The wall peptidoglycans in Gaffkya homari ATCC 10400 and in Aerococcus viridans 201 Evans and ATCC 11563 are made up of peptide units L-alanyl-γ-D-glutamyl-L-lysyl-D-alanine and L-alanyl-D-isoglutaminyl-L-lysyl-D-alanine. The yields of the peptide fragments obtained after enzymatic degradations of the walls are consistent with a peptidoglycan structure in which all the N-acetylmuramic acid residues in the glycan strands are peptide-substituted and in which about half of the peptide units occur as uncross-linked monomers whereas the others form dimers by means of Nє-(D-alanyl)-L-lysine linkages. These walls are the first known examples of lysine-containing peptidoglycans of chemotype I.