THE BACTERIAL CELL WALL

THE BACTERIAL CELL WALL:  The bacterial cell wall is quite different from the plasma membrane of the animal cell and the plant cell wall.  To differentiate and understand bacteria, staining techniques have been used to describe the morphology of the different strains.  Here, we are going to look at three ways of categorizing microbes as Gram positives, Gram negatives and acid fast bacilli.  The bacterial cell just like the human cell, has a cytoplasmic cell membrane, and then depending on the morphology, additional cell layers are superimposed as we are going to be seeing below.

THE GRAM POSITIVE BACTERIA:  In addition to the cytoplasmic membrane, gram positive bacteria has a second layer which is thicker, and this is known as the peptidoglycan layer.

THE GRAM NEGATIVE BACTERIA

ACID FAST BACILLI:  For the gram negatives, there is a third layer in addition to the plasma membrane and the peptidoglycan layer, and this is known as the lipopolysaccharide layer.

THE ACID FAST BACILLI:  For acid fast bacilli, apart from the cytoplasmic membrane, there is addition extra two special layers for Mycobacteria; the arabinogalactan and mycolic acid

OTHER EXTRACELLULAR BACTERIAL COMPONENTS

RELATED;

1.  COMPONENTS OF THE BACTERIAL CELL WALL

2.  THE PLASMA MEMBRANE