Composition of the peptidoglycan of Haemophilus influenzae

The composition of the peptidoglycan of Haemophilus influenzae was determined by analyzing glycopeptides generated by M1 muramidase hydrolysis using high pressure liquid chromatography, fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, and fast atom bombardment collisionally activated dissociation tandem mass spectrometry, and amino acid analysis. The structures of 17 glycopeptides, representing 96% of the total peptidoglycan, were ascertained. Fifteen glycopeptides resembled species described for Escherichia coli peptidoglycan (Glauner, B., and Schwarz, U. (1983) The Target of Penicillin (Hackenbeck, R., ed), Walter de Gruyter, Berlin pp. 29-34) as compared with 9 in common with Bordetella pertussis (Tuomanen, E., Schwartz, J., Sande, S., Light, K., and Gage, D. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 11093-11098). Substitutions for L-alanine in the fourth position of the stem peptide included glycine, aspartic acid, and serine. The peptidoglycan was 27% cross-linked, 2% of which formed between diaminopimelic acid residues. No species was identified containing lysyl-arginine residues characteristic of lipoprotein. The peptidoglycan of non-beta-lactamase-mediated antibiotic-resistant H. influenzae differed from that of sensitive strains by an increase in the amount of disaccharide tripeptides and a decrease in 1,6-anhydro dimers. Both changes were transformable properties that changed in a stepwise fashion in parallel with the degree of antibiotic resistance.