Acetylation D-glucosamine and

Polysaccharides of Corynebacterium diphtheriae yield D-galactose, pentoses and amino sugars on hydrolysis.79 D-Glucose and D-mannose are major hydrolytic products of the polysaccharide of Clostridium perfringens.80 Complete hydrolysis81 of the polysaccharide of the anthrax bacillus yielded acetyl-D-glucosamine and D-galactose. 

The acetylated amino sugars N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-Galactosamine (4) are often encountered as components of glycoproteins. 

This enzyme [EC 3.2.1.17], also called muramidase, catalyzes the hydrolysis of the l,4-/3-linkages between N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and A-acetylmuramic acid in pep-tidoglycan heteropolymers of prokaryotic cell walls. Some chitinases [EC 3.2.1.14] also exhibit this activity. See Kinetic Isotope Effect... 

Chitin is an abundant biopolymer, especially in Perth where the thriving Western rock lobster industry produces tonnes of waste, a good proportion of which is exoskeleton and rich in chitin. It has been our aim for some years to put this waste chitin to some good use and so, initially, we have set out to prepare epoxyalkyl glycosides based on W-acetyl-D-glucosamine and its oligomers, for example 60 and 61. It is hoped that molecules such as 60 and 61 will prove to be efficient inhibitors of chitinases, ubiquitous enzymes involved in many biological processes [42]. 

The reaction time of a transglycosylation may also be an important determinant of the product outcome. For example, the (1-4) linked disaccharide (A A -diacetylchitobiose) was the initial product formed when a mixture of A-acetyl-D-glucosamine and p-nitrophenyl (3-d-2-A-acetyl glucosamide was treated with p-galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae (Scheme 4.26).76 The only other transfer product observed was the corresponding (1-6) linked disaccharide formed at 10% of the total... 

Cellulose-like Polysaccharides Containing yV-Acetyl-D-Glucosamine and o-Glucosamine... 

A large number of bacterial polysaccharides are known [104]. The major structural component of the bacterial cell wall is a polysaccharide, known as murein and composed of a repeating unit of one A-acetyl-D-glucosamine and an O-lactyl substituted IV-acetyl-D-glucosamine (A-acetyl-D-muramic acid) see Sect. 7.3. 

The attachment of carbohydrate to nitrogen is invariably by A -acetyl-D-glucosamine and the attachment to oxygen is invariably by A/ -acetyl-D-galactosamine. A -linked carbohydrates are invariably composed of a core pentasaccharide [142] of the following structure ... 

This arrangement allows the recognition of some other hexoses (D-glucose), hexosamines (A-acetyl-D-glucosamine), and deoxyhexoses (L-fucose), while preventing some other mono-... 

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