The Bacterial Cell Wall

✍ Scribed by Dr. rer. nat. habil. Guntram Seltmann, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Otto Holst (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 289
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The bacterial cell wall represents a very complex structure disconnecting the interior of single-cell organisms from the environment, thus protecting, but also enabling, them to interact with the surrounding milieu and to exchange both substances and information. Knowledge of the biochemistry of the cell wall (components) and the genetic background helps to understand their significance with regard to microbiology and immunology of bacteria. This book represents the second edition of a publication which was presented nearly 20 years ago in the German language (Die bakterielle Zellwand). Since that time our knowledge in this field has been significantly enlarged. Therefore, the manuscript had to be completely revised and updated. To maintain both the size and the introductory character of the book at least to a great extent, the authors had to restrict the presented material to that which appears basic and most important. This requirement must inevitably bring about many subjective factors. As pointed out in the first edition, the term cell wall was not taken too strictly. Since the constituents located outside the cytoplasmic membrane are frequently difficult to divide in structure, localisation, and/or function into true cell wall components and supplementary substances, they are all at least briefly mentioned.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-2
Introduction....Pages 3-8
The Outer Membrane of the Gram-Negative Bacteria and their Components....Pages 9-102
Periplasmic Space and Rigid Layer....Pages 103-132
Further Cell Wall Components of Gram-Positive Bacteria....Pages 133-161
Cell Wall Components of Archaea....Pages 162-170
Components Outside the Cell Wall....Pages 171-203
Cell Wall Models....Pages 204-218
Cell Wall Functions....Pages 219-265
Back Matter....Pages 266-280

✦ Subjects

Microbiology; Cell Biology; Biochemistry, general