Gram-positive bacteria, cell-wall polymers

Teichoic and teichuronic acids. The cell walls of gram-positive bacteria are composed of a thick peptidoglycan layer which also contains proteins and additional polymers known as teichoic acids and teichuronic acids. In some species these account for 50% of the dry weight of the cells.598 599 Teichoic acids are high polymers of the following general types ... 

Feptidoglycan. The main component of the bacterial cell wall, consisting of a two-dimensional network of heteropolysaccharides running in one direction, cross-linked with pol) eptides running in the perpendicular direction, or Carbohydrate polymer cross-linked by proteins. It is found in the cell wall of gram positive bacteria, where it stains with the dye crystal-violet. 

The cell walls of Gram-positive bacteria, including the pathogens S. aureus. Bacillus anthracis. Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecalis contain thick layers of peptidoglycan. The peptidoglycan layers serve as both a protective barrier and as a scaffold for the attachment of secondary cell wall polymers and surface proteins. Surface proteins include hydrolytic enzymes involved in peptidoglycan turnover, as well as structures such as pili... 

Gram-positive bacteria also have additional anionic polymers (secondary cell-wall polymers, SCWPs), which are covalently attached to the muramic acid residues of the peptidoglyean and attach cell-surface proteins. They can be of the teichoic acid type, linear copolymers of a sugar alcohol and phosphoric acid, or the teichuronic acid type, in which the anionic component is uronic acids.The commonest teichoic acids are based on 1,3-linked glycerol or 1,5-linked ribitol. 

The teichoic acids are a group of polymers present chiefly in the cell walls of a number of Gram-positive bacteria. They were dis-... 

Other phosphorus-containing organic compounds found in soils and waters include phospholipids, nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and their nucleotide residues (Newman and Tate, 1980 Condron et al., 1990), phosphorylated polymers of mannose produced by yeasts (Harrison, 1987), and tei-choic acids that form the cell walls of many Gram-positive bacteria (Zhang et al., 1998 ... 

The cell walls and membranes of most Grampositive bacteria contain a series of highly anionic polymers. Quantitatively one of the most important of these is teichoic acid which can be covalently linked to a glycolipid to give a lipoteichoic acid (Fig. 2.10). An alternative type of anionic polymer, which is found in Gram-positive bacteria such as Micrococcus lysodeikticus, is succinylated lipo-mannan (Fig. 2.10). Like teichoic acid, the lipo-mannan is embedded in the membrane by linkage to a diacylglycerol moiety. 

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