Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2010 May;2(5):a000414. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a000414. Epub 2010 Apr 14.
The bacteria cell envelope is a complex multilayered structure that serves to protect these organisms from their unpredictable and often hostile environment. The cell envelopes of most bacteria fall into one of two major groups. Gram-negative bacteria are surrounded by a thin peptidoglycan cell wall, which itself is surrounded by an outer membrane containing lipopolysaccharide. Gram-positive bacteria lack an outer membrane but are surrounded by layers of peptidoglycan many times thicker than is found in the gram-negatives. Threading through these layers of peptidoglycan are long anionic polymers, called teichoic acids. The composition and organization of these envelope layers and recent insights into the mechanisms of cell envelope assembly are discussed.
细菌的细胞包膜是一个复杂的多层结构，它的作用是保护这些生物体免受其不可预测且通常充满敌意的环境的影响。大多数细菌的细胞包膜分为两大类。革兰氏阴性菌被一层薄的肽聚糖细胞壁所包围，细胞壁本身又被一层含有脂多糖的外膜所包围。革兰氏阳性菌缺乏外膜，但被多层肽聚糖层所包围，这些层的厚度是革兰氏阴性菌的许多倍。穿过这些肽聚糖层的是长的阴离子聚合物，称为磷壁酸。本文讨论了这些包膜层的组成和结构，以及最近对细胞包膜组装机制的了解。
