Towards a comprehensive view of the bacterial cell wall.
Direct in vivo visualization, in full atomic detail, of the microbial cell wall and its stress-bearing structural architecture remains one of the prime challenges in microbiology. In the meantime, molecular modeling can provide a framework for explaining and predicting mechanisms involved in morphogenesis, bacterial cell growth and cell division, during which the wall and its major structural component--murein--have to protect the cell from osmotic pressure and multiple tensile forces. Here, we illustrate why the scaffold concept of murein architecture provides a more comprehensive representation of bacterial cell wall physiology than previous models.
Dmitriev
Boris
B
N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Gamaleya str. 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
Toukach
Filip
F
Ehlers
Stefan
S
D001419:Bacteria / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008954:Models, Biological; D010457:Peptidoglycan
D010457:Peptidoglycan