Conformational behavior of the polysaccharide backbone of murein

The energetically possible conformations for the alternating heteropolysaccharide backbone of murein, consisting of N ‐acetylglucosamine and N ‐acetylmuramic acid, were calculated using an empirical approach. The calculations were carried out for regular as well as for random‐chain polymers, resulting in a model for the saccharide strands featuring extended chains with a length increment of 0.98–1.02 nm per disaccharide unit and peptide attachment sites at every second saccharide residuum pointing into all directions with propagation angles of 80–100° between consecutive sites.