Evidence map›Paper›PMID 9529891›Full record

ReviewMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR1998

Growth of the stress-bearing and shape-maintaining murein sacculus of Escherichia coli.

J V Höltje

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR, 1998. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 541 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
541citing papers in PubMed
28.3field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

541 citing papers in PubMed, 1,145 citations in OpenAlex.

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  17. Review
  18. Sensing the shape of a surface by tightly surface-bound filaments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Twin-arginine transport complex plays an essential role inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article

481 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

J V HöltjeMax-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie, Abteilung Biochemie, Tübingen, Germany. joachim-volker.hoeltje@mpib-tuebingen.mpg.de
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

To withstand the high intracellular pressure, the cell wall of most bacteria is stabilized by a unique cross-linked biopolymer called murein or peptidoglycan. It is made of glycan strands [poly-(GlcNAc-MurNAc)], which are linked by short peptides to form a covalently closed net. Completely surrounding the cell, the murein represents a kind of bacterial exoskeleton known as the murein sacculus. Not only does the sacculus endow bacteria with mechanical stability, but in addition it maintains the specific shape of the cell. Enlargement and division of the murein sacculus is a prerequisite for growth of the bacterium. Two groups of enzymes, hydrolases and synthases, have to cooperate to allow the insertion of new subunits into the murein net. The action of these enzymes must be well coordinated to guarantee growth of the stress-bearing sacculus without risking bacteriolysis. Protein-protein interaction studies suggest that this is accomplished by the formation of a multienzyme complex, a murein-synthesizing machinery combining murein hydrolases and synthases. Enlargement of both the multilayered murein of gram-positive and the thin, single-layered murein of gram-negative bacteria seems to follow an inside-to-outside growth strategy. New material is hooked in a relaxed state underneath the stress-bearing sacculus before it becomes inserted upon cleavage of covalent bonds in the layer(s) under tension. A model is presented that postulates that maintenance of bacterial shape is achieved by the enzyme complex copying the preexisting murein sacculus that plays the role of a template.

Indexed as

PeptidoglycanCarbohydrate SequenceCell DivisionCell WallEscherichia coliModels, ChemicalMolecular Sequence DataPeptidoglycan

Identifiers

PMID9529891
PMCPMC98910
OpenAlexW2115069651

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.