The chemistry of the cell walls of rod mutants of Bacillus subtilis.

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SUMMARY: The walls of two rod mutants of Bacillus subtilis 168 trp and of the parent grown under the same conditions were identical in qualitative composition, with the possible exception of rod-5 grown on minimal medium without added sodium chloride; these walls did not contain galactosamine. The amounts of α, e-diamino-pimelic acid and glutamic acid in the walls of the mutants were lowered by growth on minimal media supplemented by o·8 M-sodium chloride, whereas in the parent these growth conditions led to increases in the contents of these two amino acids. The mucopeptide of mutant rod-4 was very little cross-linked when growing under conditions that lead to a round form, but this also applied to the mucopeptide of the parent grown under the same conditions. When the mutant grew as a rod, its mucopeptide again had the same degree of cross-linking as that of the parent grown in rich media. The concentration of organic phosphorus in the walls of the mutants, presumed to be present as teichoic acid, was about the same as that in the parent and was unaffected by the growth conditions. Thus the chemistry of the walls of rod mutants did not provide obvious evidence of expression of the genetic lesion.