Qualitative analyses of vegetative cell walls and spore walls of some representative species of Streptomyces.

Abstract

Vegetative cell walls and spore walls of seven Streptomyces species representing four types of spore morphology were qualitatively analysed for their components. Amino acid and carbohydrate components (glucose, glucosamine, muramic acid, diaminopimelic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, arginine, threonine, valine, leucine, and aspartic acid) in both types of walls were identical in all species. Aspartic acid was a major component in spore walls, but a minor component in vegetative cell walls. Although organic phosphate was present in both vegetative- and spore-wall hydrolysates, the other components of teichoic acid were not found nor was teichoic acid extracted from the isolated walls by cold trichloroacetic acid. A portion of the vegetative cell wall was rendered soluble with lysozyme and separated by paper electrophoresis into two fractions detected with ninhydrin. The lysozyme-resistant portion of the vegetative cell wall showed the same major and minor components as the spore walls, which are also lysozyme resistant.