title: Low-molecular-weight substrate for the lysozyme of T4 bacteriophage.
abstract: It has been shown that muropeptide CB, the chemically defined product of Escherichia coli B murein digestion by phage lambda endolysin, is the substrate for T4 lysozyme. This is the tetrasaccharide GlcNAc-MurNAc-GlcNAc-anMurNAc in which the carboxyl groups of MurNAc and anMurNAc residues are substituted by tetrapeptide LAla-DGlu-msA2pm-DAla (MurNAc = N-acetylmuramic acid, GlcNAc = N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, anMurNAc = 1,6-anhydro-N-acetylmuramic acid, LAla  = L-alanine, DGlu = D-glutamic acid, msA2pm = meso-diaminopimelic acid). The substrate contains one bond hydrolysable by T4 lysozyme. The products of hydrolysis are the easily identifiable disaccharide muropeptides C6 (GlcNAc-MurNAc-LAla-DGlu-msA2pm-DAla) and CA (GlcNAc-anMurNac-LAla-DGlu-msA2pm-DAla). Thus the substrate may be used for the specific identification of murein N-acetylmuramoylhydrolases of the T4 lysozyme type, as well as for any quantitative measurement of the enzymatic reaction.
mesh_terms: D003090:Coliphages / Q000201:enzymology*; D004926:Escherichia coli; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009113:Muramidase / Q000378:metabolism*; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D010457:Peptidoglycan / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010446:Peptide Fragments; D010457:Peptidoglycan; D009113:Muramidase