Species of Bacillus That Make a Vegetative Peptidoglycan Containing Lysine Lack Diaminopimelate Epimerase but Have Diaminopimelate Dehydrogenase

Summary: Lysine was found in the vegetative peptidoglycan of Bacillus sphaericus (23 strains), and of the related species Bacillus pasteurii and Bacillus globisporus. None of these organisms formed diaminopimelate epimerase, but all contained diaminopimelate dehydrogenase. All other species of Bacillus studied had diaminopimelate in their walls, and produced diaminopimelate epimerase and N-acetyldiaminopimelate deacetylase, but not diaminopimelate dehydrogenase. One exception, Bacillus macerans, contained all three of these enzymes; diaminopimelate (and no lysine) was found in its walls. A new spectrophotometric assay for diaminopimelate epimerase was developed, which had advantages over the previous methods.