In Escherichia coli, lateral cell-wall expansion during growth occurs by crosslinking of new glycan chains to the existing peptidoglycan network. Here, Liang et al. show a different mechanism in the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis, where new glycan chains are cross-linked exclusively to other newly synthesized glycan chains, and not to the existing peptidoglycan network.
- Yucheng Liang
- Laure Bellard
- Michel Arthur
