First Detailed 3-D Glimpse Of Bacterial Cell-wall Architecture
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 11:35
in Physics & Chemistry
The bacterial cell wall that is the target of potent antibiotics such as penicillin is actually made up of a thin single layer of carbohydrate chains, linked together by peptides, which wrap around the bacterium like a belt around a person, according to scientists at the California Institute of Technology. This first-ever glimpse of the cell-wall structure in three dimensions was made possible by new high-tech microscopy techniques.