The
teichoic acid
that the walls of
two Gram-positive organisms belonging to the genus of micrococci being a
member of the family
Micrococcaceae, order Eubacteriales, namely : Staphylococcus aureus, and
Staphylococcus faecalis
usually comprise of teichoic acids — i.e., the acidic polymers of ribitol phosphate
and
glycerol phosphate, that are covalently linked to peptidoglycan, and which can be convenientlyextracted with cold diluted acids
In actual practice, however, the teichoic* acids may be duly grouped chiefly into
two categories,
namely : (
a) wall teichoic acids, and (b) membrane teichoic acids.
Characteristic Features :
Most teichoic acids do possess certain inherent characteristic features
as stated here under :
(1) They usually get bound to Mg
2+ ions specifically, and there is quite a bit of evidence to
suggest that they do aid in the protection of bacteria from the
thermal injury by way of
providing an adequate accessible pool of such cations for the stabilization of the cytoplasmic
membrane exclusively.
(2) Importantly, the walls of a plethora of gram-positive organism contain almost any lipid, but
those which distinctly belong to
Mycobacterium, Corynebacterium, and certain other generaare conspicuously excepted.