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Updated: Jun 12, 2025

ScanLag: High-throughput Quantification of Colony Growth and Lag Time
Published on: July 15, 2014
Mechanisms conferring bacterial cell wall variability and adaptivity
Gabriel Torrens1, Felipe Cava1
1Department of Molecular Biology and Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden, Umeå Centre for Microbial Research, SciLifeLab, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Abstract:
The bacterial cell wall, a sophisticated and dynamic structure predominantly composed of peptidoglycan (PG), plays a pivotal role in bacterial survival and adaptation. Bacteria actively modify their cell walls by editing PG components in response to environmental challenges. Diverse variations in peptide composition, cross-linking patterns, and glycan strand structures empower bacteria to resist antibiotics, evade host immune detection, and adapt to dynamic environments. This review comprehensively summarizes the most common modifications reported to date and their associated adaptive role and further highlights how regulation of PG synthesis and turnover provides resilience to cell lysis.
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