Optimization of UDP-N-acetylmuramic acid synthesis.

UDP-N-acetylmuramic acid (UDP-MurNAc) is a substrate of MurC, an important enzyme in the intracellular pathway of bacterial peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Various approaches towards preparation of UDP-MurNAc have been published but these synthetic preparations were shown to include many problematic steps. An optimization study with the focus on muramyl phosphate and UMP-morpholidate coupling was performed, resulting in a synthetic procedure enabling robust and easily reproducible production on a multi-gram scale.