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Since the cell wall is required for bacterial survival, but is absent in some eukaryotes, several antibiotics (notably the penicillins and cephalosporins) stop bacterial infections by interfering with cell wall synthesis, while having no effects on human cells which have no cell wall, only a cell membrane.
For many bacteria, the S-layer represents the outermost interaction zone with their respective environment. [9] [2] Its functions are very diverse and vary from species to species. In many archaeal species the S-layer is the only cell wall component and, therefore, is important for mechanical and osmotic stabilization.
A plant cell wall was first observed and named (simply as a "wall") by Robert Hooke in 1665. [3] However, "the dead excrusion product of the living protoplast" was forgotten, for almost three centuries, being the subject of scientific interest mainly as a resource for industrial processing or in relation to animal or human health.
As in other organisms, the bacterial cell wall provides structural integrity to the cell. In prokaryotes, the primary function of the cell wall is to protect the cell from internal turgor pressure caused by the much higher concentrations of proteins and other molecules inside the cell compared to its external environment.
Enclosing the cell is the cell envelope, generally consisting of a plasma membrane covered by a cell wall which, for some bacteria, may be further covered by a third layer called a capsule. Though most prokaryotes have both a cell membrane and a cell wall, there are exceptions such as Mycoplasma (bacteria) and Thermoplasma (archaea) which only ...
The terms "diderm" and "monoderm", coined to refer to this distinction only, is a more reliable and fundamental characteristic of the bacterial cells. [4] [8] Monoderm bacteria have a thin periplasm between the cell wall and the plasma membrane [2]
Around the outside of the cell membrane is the cell wall. Bacterial cell walls are made of peptidoglycan (also called murein), which is made from polysaccharide chains cross-linked by peptides containing D-amino acids. [73] Bacterial cell walls are different from the cell walls of plants and fungi, which are made of cellulose and chitin ...
Structure of a teichoic acid repeat unit from Micrococcaceae Structure of the lipoteichoic acid polymer. Teichoic acids (cf. Greek τεῖχος, teīkhos, "wall", to be specific a fortification wall, as opposed to τοῖχος, toīkhos, a regular wall) [1] are bacterial copolymers [2] of glycerol phosphate or ribitol phosphate and carbohydrates linked via phosphodiester bonds.