Cited research: Nature Commun. doi:10.1038/ncomms1027 (2010)

Researchers have imaged the structure of an enigmatic cell-wall component in living bacteria.

Yves Dufrêne at the Catholic University of Louven in Belgium and his colleagues used atomic force microscopy to capture nanometre-scale images of the surface of Lactococcus lactis cells.

The authors focused on a major constituent of bacterial cell walls called peptidoglycan because it is the target of many antibiotics, but its spatial organization is unclear. They imaged normal bacteria and mutants lacking cell-wall sugars that ordinarily coat the peptidoglycan and obscure it from view.

Whereas normal bacteria appeared smooth, the mutants had 25-nanometre-wide bands of peptidoglycan running parallel to the short axis of the cell. The researchers say that their method could be used to help visualize peptidoglycan–drug interactions in other bacteria. D.P.C.