Quantum chemical studies on the conformational structure of bacterial peptidoglycan: The role of N-acetyl group

Abstract

The semi-empirical quantum chemical calculations at the PCILO level of approximation have been carried out on the glycan moiety of bacterial peptidoglycan both with and without N-acetyl groups to re-examine their effects on the glycosidic bond conformations. It seems that the removal of such bulky groups does influence the conformation of sugar chains at least for the β-(1-4)-linked di-saccharide of N-acetyl glucosamine and N-acetyl muramic acid.