Biological consequences of the replacement of choline by ethanolamine in the cell wall of Pneumococcus: chanin formation, loss of transformability, and loss of autolysis.

Abstract

The nutritional requirement of Pneumococcus for choline can be satisfied by ethanolamine, N-methylamino ethanolamine or N,N-dimethylamino ethanolamine. These amino alcohols seem to be incorporated as structural analogues of choline into sites of a macromolecular cell wall component; the same sites are normally occupied by choline. The consequences of this modification of cell wall structure are severalfold: daughter cells remain physically associated after cell division; the ability of the bacteria to undergo autolysis, the solubility of the cells in deoxycholate and the capacity to undergo genetic transformation are lost.