by Roberto — The O‑side chains of lipopolysaccharides (LPS), the outer most feature of most Gram-negative's outer membrane, are highly variable in terms of their chain length and chemical composition. In my last post, I described how...
by Roberto — First, let me comment on the title I wrote. It should have read, what bears the load? Better yet, what part of the bacterial cell envelope is the load-bearing component? Whenever I taught bacterial cell biology I always started by describing the components of cell envelope, cytoplasmic membrane, cell wall and, in the Gram-negatives, the outer membrane.
by Elio — It is not unexpected that the contemplation of bacteria and archaea should focus so much on the nature and importance of their cell envelopes. Here, after all, is the interface between the cell's interior and the outside world. It is also what a host perceives early on when becoming infected. Plus, as was...
Pictures Considered #35 by Elio — In 1968, Miura and Mizushima published the first report showing that that the inner (cytoplasmic) and outer membrane of E. coli could be separated from one another. The existence of two membranes had been surmised from thin EM sections, but being able to isolate and purify them allowed further studies, especially biochemical ones.
Pictures Considered #34 by Elio — In a recent "Classic Spotlight" in the Journal of Bacteriology, the editor in chief, Tom Silhavy, pointed out that the first visual proof that Gram-negative bacteria have two membranes came from work by Bladen and Mergenhagen. In their 1964 paper...
