Mammalian peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs), similar to antimicrobial lectins, bind the bacterial cell wall and kill bacteria through an unknown mechanism. We show that PGRPs enter the ...

Staphylococci are known to divide sequentially on orthogonal planes in three dimensions 1: in a 3D Cartesian coordinate system with axes x, y and z, cells might divide in the x–y plane, then the x–z ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Quick, can you describe your grandparents?

There are many ways of classifying bacteria. One method is based on the cell membrane. In 1884, a bacteriologist named Christian Gram created a test that could determine if a bacterium had a thick, ...

Gram-positive bacteria have thick cell walls. A Gram stain test, which involves a chemical dye, stains the bacterium’s cell wall purple. On the other hand, gram-negative bacteria stain pink instead.

Bacterial species, and even specific strains can be differentiated using a number of molecular techniques such as PCR, quantitative PCR, genome sequencing and mass spectrometry. But even without ...