The phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent sugar phosphotransferase system (sugar PTS), a major carbohydrate active transport system, catalyzes the phosphorylation of incoming sugar substrates concomitantly with their translocation across the cell membrane. This system is involved in the uptake and phosphorylation of MurNAc-GlcNAc, the principle peptidoglycan turnover product of S.aureus, yielding cytoplasmic MurNAc 6P-GlcNAc. N(pros)-phospho-L-histidyl-[protein] + N-acetyl-beta-D-muramate-(1->4)-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine(out) = 6-phospho-N-acetyl-beta-D-muramate-(1->4)-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine(in) + L-histidyl-[protein] Cell wall biogenesis; peptidoglycan recycling. The EIIB domain is phosphorylated by phospho-EIIA on a cysteinyl or histidyl residue, depending on the transported sugar. Then, it transfers the phosphoryl group to the sugar substrate concomitantly with the sugar uptake processed by the EIIC domain. The EIIC domain forms the PTS system translocation channel and contains the specific substrate-binding site. Cells lacking this gene show an extracellular accumulation of the disaccharide turnover product MurNAc-GlcNAc, but do not accumulate MurNAc.