IMPROVED SEPARATION OF COMPONENTS OF STREPTOCOCCAL CELL WALLS BY THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY

A method is presented whereby twelve compounds commonly occurring in streptococcal cell walls are resolved by two-dimesional thin-layer chromatography. dl-Alanine, l-lysine, d-glutamic acid, muramic acid, d-glucosamine, and d-galactosamine are resolved on one chromatogram, while d-mannose, d-galactose, d-glucose, l-rhamnose, glycerol, and ribitol are separated on a second layer. Solvent mixtures and conditions employed are described above. This procedure allows the analysis of streptococcal cell wall hydrolyzates to be accomplished more rapidly and more conveniently than by previous methods employing continuous-flow paper chromatography (8). Whereas the latter procedure required up to 70 hr, the method presented here allows resolution of all known cell wall components in less than 9 hr. © 1969.