Uncategories Typical Bacterial Cell

Typical Bacterial Cell

Bacteria

being prokaryotic

in nature are much simpler in comparison to the ‘animal cells’. In

addition to this, they have

three distinct characteristic features, namely : (a) an extensive endoplasmic

reticulum* ; (

b) essentially lack a membrane-bound nucleus ; and (c) mitochondria.

Nevertheless, bacteria do possess a rather

complex surface structure having a rigid cell wall that

surrounds the

cytoplasmic membrane, as shown in Fig. 2.7, which essentially serves as the osmotic

barrier

as well as the ‘active transport’ necessarily needed so as to sustain and maintain a suitableintracellular concentration of the specific ions and the metabolites.

Infact, the

bacterial cell wall has two major roles to play :

(

a) to protect the cell against osmotic rupture particularly in diluted media, and also against

certain possible mechanical damage(s), and

(

b) to assign bacterial shapes, their subsequent major division into Gram positive and Gramnegative microorganisms and their antigenic attributes.