[Comparative study of cell walls of group A Streptococcus and its non-adhesive phosphomycin-resistant mutant]

The cell wall composition of nonadhesive fosfomycin-resistant mutant of group A streptococcus and highly adhesive wild strain have been studied. The cell wall of the mutant nonadhesive strain contained significantly reduced amounts of lipoteichoic acid and surface proteins as compared to the wild strain, did not contain surface lipoteichoic acid, and, possibly, differed in peptidoglycan-polysaccharide bonding. No differences in the qualitative carbohydrate composition of the cell walls were found. The amino acid composition of the cell walls of these microorganisms differed only in alanine content, which correlates with the reduction of lipoteichoic acid content in the mutant strain. The structural similarity of peptidoglycans of the two strains is demonstrated.