ReviewOpen biology2013
L-form bacteria, cell walls and the origins of life.
Review in Open biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed, 209 citations in OpenAlex.
- Flip Flop-Associated Growth and Division of Synthetic Cells.ACS nano · 2026Article
- The Flavonoids Daidzein and Genistein Induce Wall-Deficient Cell Formation in Streptomyces coelicolor Under Hyperosmotic Stress.Microbial biotechnology · 2026Article
- Revealing Cell Envelope Heterogeneity in Two StableInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Alanine-scanning mutagenesis library of MreB reveals distinct roles for regulating cell shape and viability.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- On the nature of the earliest known lifeforms.eLife · 2026Article
- Beyond Resistance: Phenotypic Plasticity in Bacterial Responses to Antibiotics, Oxidative Stress and Antimicrobial Photodynamic Inactivation.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A microphysiological human mini-bladder reveals urine-urothelium interplay in tissue resilience and UPEC recurrence in urinary tract infections.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Structural characterisation of nucleotide sugar short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases from the thermophilic pseudomurein-containing methanogen Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus ΔH.The FEBS journal · 2026Article
- Emergent collective alignment gives competitive advantage to longer cells during range expansion.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The last resort antibiotic daptomycin exhibits two independent antibacterial mechanisms of action.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Peptidoglycan-reshuffling proteins SCO0954, SCO1758, SCO4439, and SCO4440 modulate the formation of wall-deficient cells in Streptomyces coelicolor under hyperosmotic sucrose stress.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Lysogenic control of Bacillus subtilis morphology and fitness by Spbetavirus phi3T.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Advancing antibiotic discovery with bacterial cytological profiling: a high-throughput solution to antimicrobial resistance.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- Terrabacteria: redefining bacterial envelope diversity, biogenesis and evolution.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2025Review
- Mechanisms conferring bacterial cell wall variability and adaptivity.Biochemical Society transactions · 2024Review
- Tissue-resident bacteria in metabolic diseases: emerging evidence and challenges.Nature metabolism · 2024Review
- Synthetic phage-based approach for sensitive and specific detection of Escherichia coli O157.Communications biology · 2024Article
- What is the role of microbial biotechnology and genetic engineering in medicine?MicrobiologyOpen · 2024Review
- The reproduction process of Gram-positive protocells.Scientific reports · 2024Article
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The peptidoglycan wall is a defining feature of bacterial cells and was probably already present in their last common ancestor. L-forms are bacterial variants that lack a cell wall and divide by a variety of processes involving membrane blebbing, tubulation, vesiculation and fission. Their unusual mode of proliferation provides a model for primitive cells and is reminiscent of recently developed in vitro vesicle reproduction processes. Invention of the cell wall may have underpinned the explosion of bacterial life on the Earth. Later innovations in cell envelope structure, particularly the emergence of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, possibly in an early endospore former, seem to have spurned further major evolutionary radiations. Comparative studies of bacterial cell envelope structure may help to resolve the early key steps in evolutionary development of the bacterial domain of life.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.