Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jan 21:2013:935736.
doi: 10.1155/2013/935736. Print 2013.

Cell envelope of corynebacteria: structure and influence on pathogenicity

Andreas Burkovski  1
Affiliations

Cell envelope of corynebacteria: structure and influence on pathogenicity

Andreas Burkovski. ISRN Microbiol. .

Abstract

To date the genus Corynebacterium comprises 88 species. More than half of these are connected to human and animal infections, with the most prominent member of the pathogenic species being Corynebacterium diphtheriae, which is also the type species of the genus. Corynebacterium species are characterized by a complex cell wall architecture: the plasma membrane of these bacteria is followed by a peptidoglycan layer, which itself is covalently linked to a polymer of arabinogalactan. Bound to this, an outer layer of mycolic acids is found which is functionally equivalent to the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. As final layer, free polysaccharides, glycolipids, and proteins are found. The composition of the different substructures of the corynebacterial cell envelope and their influence on pathogenicity are discussed in this paper.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The corynebacterial cell envelope. A schematic representation of the general envelope structure of corynebacteria is shown. The different layers are found in almost all species, and distribution of single components like lipomannan (LM) and lipoarabinomannan (LAM) might differ (for details, see text). Porin proteins might also be present in top layer, S-layer, and pili proteins not shown (figure courtesy of S. Morbach, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ventura M, Canchaya C, Tauch A, et al. Genomics of Actinobacteria: tracing the evolutionary history of an ancient phylum. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 2007;71(3):495–548. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhi XY, Li WJ, Stackebrandt E. An update of the structure and 16S rRNA gene sequence-based definition of higher ranks of the class Actinobacteria, with the proposal of two new suborders and four new families and emended descriptions of the existing higher taxa. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 2009;59(3):589–608. - PubMed
    1. Bernard K. The genus Corynebacterium and other medically relevant coryneform-like bacteria. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2012;50(10):3152–3158. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker J, Wittmann C. Bio-based production of chemicals, materials and fuels—Corynebacterium glutamicum as versatile cell factory. Current Opinion in Biotechnology. 2012;23(4):631–640. - PubMed
    1. Vertes AA, Inui M, Yukawa H. Postgenomic approaches to using corynebacteria as biocatalysts. Annual Review of Microbiology. 2012;66:521–550. - PubMed