Chemical Syntheses of Peptidoglycan Fragments and Their Applications in Chemical Biology

Bacteria possess a cell wall based on a rigid extracellular matrix comprised of peptidoglycan (PG), which maintains their structural integrity. Although PG is a molecule that has attracted interest from various research fields, such studies have been limited by the difficulty to isolate the desired PG fragments. In order to make PG fragments available, many efforts have been made to achieve their synthesis. This review summarizes the synthetic strategies reported for the construction of PG fragments by the Fukase and Fujimoto's group as well as the Mobashery's group. Furthermore, applications of synthetic PG fragments in chemical biology are described.