The bacterial cell wall and membrane - a treasure chest for antibiotic targets -- Lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis and transport to the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria -- Lipoproteins: structure, function, biosynthesis -- Outer membrane porins -- Peptidoglycan -- The Periplasmic Chaperones Skp and SurA -- Bacterial signal peptidases -- Carbohydrate Transport by Group Translocation: The Bacterial Phosphoenolpyruvate : Sugar Phosphotransferase System -- Secondary active transporters -- Respiratory membrane protein complexes convert chemical energy -- Inner membrane translocases and insertases -- The biosynthesis and structures of bacterial pili -- Cell Walls and Membranes of Actinobacteria -- Archaeal cell walls.

This book provides an up-to-date overview of the architecture and biosynthesis of bacterial and archaeal cell walls, highlighting the evolution-based similarities in, but also the intriguing differences between the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria, the Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, and the Archaea. The recent major advances in this field, which have brought to light many new structural and functional details, are presented and discussed. Over the past five years, a number of novel systems, e.g. for lipid, porin and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis have been described. In addition, new structural achievements with periplasmic chaperones have been made, all of which have revealed amazing details on how bacterial cell walls are synthesized. These findings provide an essential basis for future research, e.g. the development of new antibiotics. The book's content is the logical continuation of Volume 84 of SCBI (on Prokaryotic Cytoskeletons), and sets the stage for upcoming volumes on Protein Complexes.