Chemical structure of the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. bovis, strain BCG.

BCG cell walls contain approximately 30% free lipids like other mycobacterial cell walls. The insoluble skeleton of the cell wall is made up of two covalently linked polymers, a peptidoglycan and an arabinogalactan mycolate, with which are associated non peptidoglycan amino acids and a glucan. We present data on two structural features: 1. The "non peptidoglycan" amino acids; they form two kinds of compounds: peptide chains which can be solubilized by proteolytic enzymes and a trypsin-chymotrypsin insensitive poly-alpha-L-glutamic acid. 2. Presence of meso-DAP-meso-DAP1) interpeptide linkages in the peptidoglycan: this new type represents at least 50% of the interpeptide linkages of the cell wall of the BCG strain.