Title: peptidoglycan
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - peptidoglycan
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.P04480
Status: current

Definition
A glycosaminoglycan formed by alternating residues of ᴅ-glucosamine and either muramic acid {2-amino-3-O-[(S)-1-carboxyethyl]-2-deoxy-ᴅ-glucose} or ʟ-talosaminuronic acid (2-amino-2-deoxy-ʟ-taluronic acid), which are usually N-acetylated or N-glycoloylated. The carboxyl group of the muramic acid is commonly substituted by a peptide containing residues of both ʟ- and ᴅ-amino acids, whereas that of ʟ-talosaminuronic acid is substituted by a peptide consisting of ʟ-amino acids only.

Related Term
- glycosaminoglycan: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/G02659

Sources
- PAC, 1988, 60, 1389. 'Nomenclature of glycoproteins, glycopeptides and peptidoglycans (Recommendations 1985)' on page 1391 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac198860091389)
- White Book, 2nd ed., p. 85 (https://iupac.qmul.ac.uk/bibliog/white.html)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04480/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04480/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04480/xml

Citation: Citation: 'peptidoglycan' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.P04480
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Accessed: 2026-05-28T04:02:39+00:00