[R] Column header strategy

[Addi Wei]

Hopefully simple question:  What is the best way to name, and treat factor
columns for data that has lots of columns? 
 
This is my column list:
id pID50 D.1 D.2 D.3 D.4 D.5 , etc. all the way to D.185

I was under the impression from several R examples in pls that if you name
your columns like above, you should be able to simply call all the D factors
with "D", instead of going in and putting a plus sign between each column.  
miceD <- plsr(pID50~D, ncomp=10,data = micetitletest)
Error in model.frame.default(formula = pID50 ~ D, data = micetitletest) : 
  invalid type (closure) for variable 'D'

VS.

miceD <- plsr(pID50 ~ D.1 + D.2 + D.3 + D.4 etc. to D.185 , ncomp=10, data =
micetitletest)

What am I missing above that's causing that error message in bold?  Is there
a better strategy for naming my columns in order to make R use easier? 

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