Ligation of arabinogalactan to peptidoglycan in the cell wall of Mycobacterium smegmatis requires concomitant synthesis of the two polymers

Research has been conducted on Mycobacterium smegmatis cell wall assembly. The study of the assembly events has been carried out in vivo via radiolabelling of exponentially growing liquid cultures and the ability of M. smegmatis to take up radioactive N-acetylglucosamine from the culture medium and incorporate it into peptidoglycan has been investigated.