Composition of Cell Walls of Some Gram-Negative Cocci

Abstract

Cell walls isolated from six species of Neisseria contained 17 amino-acids, 6.3-8.3% mucopeptide and 11.4-30.0% lipid. Veillonella parvula cell walls were similar, differing principally in the presence of 24.5% mucopdptide. The mucopeptide of all seven gram-negative cocci contained glucosamine, muramic acid, glutamic acid, alanine, glycine and DL-diaminopimelic acid as principal components; the mucopeptide from V. parvula cell walls also contained an unidentified ninhydrin-reacting component. The marked similarity of the cell walls of the gram-negative cocci and those of gram-negative bacilli indicates a closer relationship between these two groups than between the gram-negative and gram-positive cocci.