Monday, November 16, 2009

Why are Gram positive bacteria more susceptible to lysozyme than Gram negative bacteria?

Gram Positive Bacteria have a cell wall of more than 20 layers of peptidoglycan (a mixture of peptides and sugars), making its cell wall very thick and tough, pretty hard to break down. Gram negative bacteria on the other hand have a cell layer of lipids. But just because Gram negative bacteria are easier to destroy than Gram positive one doesn't mean, they aren't deadly. The Black Plague which wiped out a third of Europes was caused by Yersinia pestis, a GRam negative cell.

Why are Gram positive bacteria more susceptible to lysozyme than Gram negative bacteria?
Gram positive bacteria don't have that extra layer around the cell wall that gram negative bacteria have.
Reply:Well, Gram negative bacteria, although having less peptidoglycan, they have an extra layer that grampositives don't have LPS (lipopolysaccharide), lots of anti-biotics can't break this layer down


1 comment:

  1. how to use lysozyme? and what buffer lysozyme powder should be dissolve to break gram positive / s.aureus ?do you know how to use lysozyme ready to use for gram positive? i use L3090 lysozyme from sigma..

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