Peptidoglycan .Types of Bacterial Cell Walls and their Taxonomic ...

450 SCHLEIFER AND KANDLER
BACTERIOL REV.
TABLE 33. Distribution of peptidoglycans of subgroup A4 among coryneform bacteria
Vars- Peptidoglycan type Species Fig. Reference
A4a L-LYS-D-ASp Brevibacterium acetylicum ATCC 953 9 Cziharz;a Fiedler, un-
Kurthia zopfii ATCC 6900, 10538 published data
L-Lys-D-Glu B. incertum ATCC 8363; B. sulfureum 20a Cziharz
ATCC 19098
L-Lys-Ala-Glu Arthrobacter citreus ATCC 21040, 21422; 16b 101
A. nicotianae ATCC 15236; A. sp. NCIB
9863; 2 Arthrobacter sp.;B. fuscum
ATCC 15993; B. liquifaciens ATCC
14929
L-Lys-D-Ser-D-Asp B. liticum ATCC 15921, Corynebacterium 24a 101
manihot NCIB 9097
A4 f L-Orn-D-Asp Cellulomonas flavigena ATCC 482 9 Fiedler and Kandler, unpublished
data
L-Orn-D-Glu Cellulomonas biazotea ATCC 486; C. 20a Fiedler and Kandler, uncellasea
NCIB 8078; C. fimi ATCC 484;I published data
15724; C. gelida ATCC 488;- C. udal
ATCC 491; C. subalbus NCIB 8075
A4,y m-Dpm-D-Asp2 A. duodecadis ATCC 13347
m-Dpm-D-Glu2 Arthrobacter sp. 1, NCIB 9859, 9860, 9861 17b 3g
a B. Cziharz, Diplom thesis, Technical University, Munich, 1969.
Moreover, the GC content of Listeria (38%) is
quite different from that of human or animal
pathogenic corynebacteria with 51 to 58% (141).
From studies on the numerical taxonomy of
Listeria (84) and from metabolic studies (251),
it was concluded that Listeria and M. thermosphactum
show a closer relationship to the
family Lactobacillaceae than to the family
Corynebacteriaceae. With regard to the GC
content there could be a close relation between
Listeria and streptococci (141). But against this
can be set the fact that m-Dpm does not occur
in streptococci (see above). Obviously the relationship
of Listeria is not yet clear.
Variation A3a. Strains containing peptidoglycans
of variation A3a form a rather uniform
group, although they show a great number of
different types of interpeptide bridges (Table
32, Fig. 25). Most of these strains belong to the
genus Arthrobacter and are distinguished by
strictly aerobic growth and a complete life
cycle. This group conforms to the description of
the genus Arthrobacter by Conn and Dimmick
(64). Some strains hitherto classified as
Brevibacterium or Corynebacterium (Fig. 26)
are also included within this group since they
I 29b Bogdanovsky et al.,
manuscript in preparation
contain the same variation of peptidoglycan.
Variation A3y. Strains of Arthrobacter simplex
and A. tumescens (Fig. 27) can be united
into a further group of coryneform organisms.
They also show a marked life cycle and are
strictly aerobic, but their peptidoglycan types
belong to variation A3y (Table 32). L,L-Dpm
occurs instead of L-Lys in position 3 of the
peptide subunit. The interpeptide bridges consist
of a single or several Gly residues (Fig. 15a,
27a). The proposal to classify A. simplex and A.
tumescens within a distinct group is supported
by previous evidence which separates both
species from the main group of arthrobacters
(84, 121). The occurrence of an identical peptidoglycan
type and a similar GC content
(70-74%) may indicate a possible relationship
between these arthrobacters and certain aerobic
actinomycetes (see below). L, L-Dpm and Gly
were also found in cell walls of anaerobic
corynebacteria. The amino acid composition of
cell walls of C. acnes ATCC 6919, 6922, and
11828 and of C. parvum ATCC 11829 were
qualitatively studied by Werner and Mann
(410) and that of C. anaerobium by Nguyen-
Dang (270). The qualitative amino acid compo-
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