The resulting high-resolution images help researchers better understand the structure of the bacterium, as well as
In the published photographs there is a bacteriumcoli. Usually it does not cause any harm to the human body, but some of its strains cause serious illness and can even be resistant to antibiotics.
With a conventional microscope, you can only see the outline of the bacterium, not the structure of the body or the outer membrane that protects it from drugs.
The outer membrane of the bacteria is a barrier against antibiotics. It is she who protects them and makes them resistant to various drugs.
Bart Hoogenboom, a nanotechnologist at University College London and co-author of the paper
The authors used atomic force microscopy(AFM) is a method that can be used to study objects several nanometers in length. They examined the surface of E. Coli bacteria using AFM and found that on the outside they looked like a mosaic of proteins.
Most areas of the outer membrane are covered inmostly immobile proteins, but there were also small areas in which there was no protein at all, instead they were filled with molecules of sugar lipids.
This suggests that the barrier cannot be equally difficult to overcome. It has stronger and weaker spots that can also be affected by antibiotics.
Bart Hoogenboom, a nanotechnologist at University College London and co-author of the paper
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