A rapid and simple procedure for the preparation of the two bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan nucleotide precursors labeled in their amino sugars

The two bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan precursors UDP-MurNAc-l-Ala-d-iso Glu-l-Lys-d-Ala-d-Ala and UDP-GlcNAc labeled in their amino sugars with either tritium or carbon-14 accumulated in cells ofMicrococcus luteus that were incubated for short periods of time in a minimal medium to which ¹⁴C]glucose or ³H]glucose together with Vancomycin were added. The radioactive nucleotides were extracted from the cells with cold trichloroacetic acid, and their purification was achieved by paper electrophoresis followed by paper chromatography.