A Search for the Bacterial Mucopeptide Component, Muramic Acid, in Chlamydia

SUMMARY: Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular parasites. They multiply by binary fission in a complex developmental cycle that involves a series of morphological forms. The mature infectious form, the elementary body, has a rigid wall similar in ultrastructure and amino acid content to the walls of Gram-negative bacteria (Manire & Tamura, 1967; Murray, 1968; Tamura, Matsumoto, Manire & Higashi, 1971). The intermediate form in multiplication, the reticulate body, lacks a rigid wall and is non-infectious.