Isolation and Identification of UDP-N-Acetylglucosamine from Cells of Saccharomyces rouxii

A uridine sugar nucleotide was isolated from the intracellular pool of Saccharomyces rouxii strain no. K122 grown on 2 M glucose-medium.The isolate was identified as UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlicNAc) by various chromatographic analyses and the structure was further confirmed enzymatically by the use of Staphylococcal UDP-GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase (EC2.7.7.23).It was found that UDP-GlcNAc was abundantly accumulated in the cells grown only on a hypertonic medium, and not in the cells grown on an ordinary hypotonic medium.