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Bacterial envelope built to a peptidoglycan tune

How a bacterium coordinates the assembly of its outer layers, and couples the formation of this envelope to cell growth and division, is not fully understood. Assessing the role of peptidoglycan molecules provides some answers.
  1. Michaël Deghelt

    1. Michaël Deghelt is at WELBIO – Walloon Excellence in Life Sciences and Biotechnology, 1200 Brussels, Belgium, and also at the de Duve Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels.

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  2. Jean-François Collet

    1. Jean-François Collet is at WELBIO – Walloon Excellence in Life Sciences and Biotechnology, 1200 Brussels, Belgium, and also at the de Duve Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels.

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A classification system in use since the end of the nineteenth century groups bacteria as either Gram-positive or Gram-negative. This sorting system depends on the level of microbial permeability to an exterior dye, a characteristic influenced by the properties of structures that form bacterial outer layers and are termed the cell envelope. This envelope has many essential roles in enabling bacteria to function and survive. Writing in Nature, Mamou et al.1 report evidence that sheds light on a long-standing mystery about how the cell envelope of Gram-negative bacteria is constructed.

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Nature 606, 866-867 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01739-3

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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