Bacterial Cell Wall Homeostasis: Methods and Protocols

This volume brings together the most widely used and important protocols currently being employed in researching and understanding bacterial cell wall homeostasis. Chapters in Bacterial Cell Wall Homeostasis cover a variety of subjects, such as: modern microscopy techniques and other biophysical methods used to characterize the subcellular structure of the bacterial cell wall; high-throughput approaches that can be used to identify all the genes and proteins that participate in the correct functioning of an organism’s cell wall; protocols for assaying individual gene products for specific cell wall functions or identify chemicals with inhibitory activity against the cell wall; and methods for analyzing the non-protein components of the cell wall and the increasing use of computational approaches for predicting and modeling cell wall related functions and processes. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introduction to their respective topics, lists of the necessary material and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Thorough and cutting-edge, Bacterial Cell Wall Homeostasis: Methods and Protocols emphasizes the diversity of the research taking place in bacterial cell wall homeostasis, and explains how the integration of information from across multiple disciplines is going to be essential if a holistic understanding of this important process is to be obtained.