Atomic Force Microscopic Analysis of Bacterial Cell Wall Peptidoglycan Architecture -- Ultra-Sensitive High Throughput Analytical Methods to Identify Novel Components Involved in Cell Wall Biology and to Study Bacterial Cell Wall Dynamics -- Microarray Analysis to Monitor Bacterial Cell Wall Homeostasis -- Cell Shaving and False Positive Control Strategies Coupled to Novel Statistical Tools to Profile Gram-Positive Bacterial Surface Proteomes -- Differential Proteomics Based on Multidimensional Protein Identification Technology to Understand the Biogenesis of Outer Membrane of Escherichia coli -- Random Transposon Mutagenesis for Cell-Envelope Resistant to Phage Infection -- Zymographic Techniques for the Analysis of Bacterial Cell Wall in Bactillus -- Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry to Define Sortase Cleavage Products -- Genetics and Cell Morphology Analyses of the Actinomyces oris srtA Mutant -- Construction of a Bioassay System to Identify Extracellular Agents Targeting Bacterial Cell Envelope -- Luciferase Reporter Gene System to Detect Cell Wall Stress Stimulon Induction in Staphylococcus aureus -- Extraction and Analysis of Peptidoglycan Cell Wall Precursors -- Continuous Fluorescence Assay for Peptidoglycan Glycosyltransferases -- Analysis of Peptidoglycan Fragment Release -- Analysis of Cell Wall Teichoic Acids in Staphylococcus aureus -- Analysis of Bacterial Cell Surface Chemical Composition Using Cryogenic X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy -- Biophysical Measurements of Bacterial Cell Shape -- Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Bacterial Cell Wall -- Structural Comparison and Simulation of Pneumococcal Peptidoglycan Hydrolase LytB.

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. .