Prescott's Microbiology 8th Edition by Joanne Willey, Linda Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton, Lansing Prescott, John Harley, Donald Klein

Exercise 3

Compare and contrast the cell walls of gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria. Include labeled drawings in your discussion.

Step 1 of 5

Both gram-positive and gram-negative cell walls contain a cell membrane, a peptidoglycan layer, and a periplasmic space. The cell membrane is made up of a bilayer of phospholipids. Peptidoglycan provides structural support to the cell wall and is made up of amino acids and sugar molecules (N-acetyl glucosamine and N-acetyl muramic acid). The periplasmic space is the space in between the plasma membrane and peptidoglycan of gram-positive bacteria or between the inner and outer membrane of gram-negative bacterial cell walls.