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Biosynthesis

Imaging cell-wall biosynthesis live

The biosynthesis of peptidoglycan is an important step in bacterial cell division and cell-wall maturation. Now it has been shown that fluorescent D-amino acids can be used to label the peptidoglycan cell wall of living bacteria, providing a new tool to study this important process.

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Figure 1: Possible mechanisms for periplasmic/extracellular steps for incorporation of novel D-amino acids into peptidoglycan.

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Correspondence to Timothy D. H. Bugg.

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Bugg, T. Imaging cell-wall biosynthesis live. Nature Chem 5, 10–12 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1538

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