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The bacterial cell wall differs from that of all other organisms by the presence of peptidoglycan which is located immediately outside of the cell membrane. Peptidoglycan is made up of a polysaccharide backbone consisting of alternating N-Acetylmuramic acid (NAM) and N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) residues in equal amounts.
The cell wall is essential to the survival of many bacteria, although L-form bacteria can be produced in the laboratory that lack a cell wall. [38] The antibiotic penicillin is able to kill bacteria by preventing the cross-linking of peptidoglycan and this causes the cell wall to weaken and lyse. [ 37 ]
Bacterial cellular morphologies are the shapes that are characteristic of various types of bacteria and often key to their identification. Their direct examination under a light microscope enables the classification of these bacteria (and archaea). Generally, the basic morphologies are spheres (coccus) and round-ended cylinders or rod shaped ...
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. [72] Bacterial cell walls are different from the cell walls of plants and fungi, which are made of cellulose and chitin ...
Gram staining is a bacteriological laboratory technique [8] used to differentiate bacterial species into two large groups (gram-positive and gram-negative) based on the physical properties of their cell walls. [9][page needed] Gram staining can also be used to diagnose a fungal infection. [1]
Peptidoglycan. Peptidoglycan or murein is a unique large macromolecule, a polysaccharide, consisting of sugars and amino acids that forms a mesh-like layer (sacculus) that surrounds the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. [1] The sugar component consists of alternating residues of β- (1,4) linked N -acetylglucosamine (NAG) and N -acetylmuramic ...
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 ...
An S-layer (surface layer) is a part of the cell envelope found in almost all archaea, as well as in many types of bacteria. [1][2] The S-layers of both archaea and bacteria consists of a monomolecular layer composed of only one (or, in a few cases, two) identical proteins or glycoproteins. [3] This structure is built via self-assembly and ...