teichoic acid
The definitions used in this glossary of terminology either have been provided by the authors of the articles, or have been extracted wholly or in part, or paraphrased from the following sources: The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine, Charles B. Clayman, MD, Medical Editor, Random House, New York, 1989; Biotechnology from A to Z, 2d Edition, William Bains, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; A Dictionary of Genetics, 6th Edition, Robert C. King and William D. Stansfield, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th and 30th Editions, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 2000, 2003; Genes VII, Benjamin Lewin, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2000; The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Volumes I and II, Stacey L. Blachford, Ed., Thomson Learning, New York, New York, 2002; The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts, 1997; Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd Edition, Bruce Alberts, et al., Garland Publishing, 1994; The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition, 1966; Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1991.
DEFINITION:
- teichoic acid
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Any of a diverse group of polymers found in the cell wall and cell membrane of gram-positive bacteria. They consist of phosphate-linked backbones of sugar alcohol residues, to which are attached various sugars and D-alanine residues. The sugar alcohol may be glycerol (glycerol teichoic acids) or ribitol (ribitol teichoic acids); the first type occurs in both the cell wall and cell membrane, the second only in the cell wall. They can also be classified as "lipoteichoic acids" or "wall teichoic acids" on the basis of their site of attachment in the cell. In certain bacteria, at least some of the teichoic acids serve as major antigenic determinants.