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. 1981 Nov;148(2):406–412. doi: 10.1128/jb.148.2.406-412.1981

Synthesis of teichoic acid by Bacillus subtilis protoplasts.

K C Bertram, I C Hancock, J Baddiley
PMCID: PMC216220  PMID: 6271728

Abstract

Protoplasts of Bacillus subtilis W23 readily synthesized ribitol teichoic acid from nucleotide precursors in the surrounding medium. With cytidine diphosphate-ribitol they made poly(ribitol phosphate), presumably attached to lipoteichoic acid carrier; when cytidine diphosphate-glycerol and uridine diphosphate-N-acetylglucosamine were also present a 10-fold increase in the rate of polymer synthesis occurred, and the product contained both the main chain and the linkage unit. Synthesis was inhibited by trypsin or p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate in the medium, and we concluded that it occurred at the outer surface of the membrane. During synthesis, which was also achieved readily by whole cells after a brief period of wall lysis, the cytidine phosphate portion of the nucleotide precursors did not pass through the membrane. No evidence could be obtained for a transphosphorylation mechanism for the translocation process. It is suggested that reaction with exogenous substrates was due to temporary exposure of a protein component of the enzyme complex at the outer surface of the membrane during the normal biosynthetic cycle.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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