In this video, we're going to introduce peptidoglycan. Peptidoglycan is a rigid, mesh-like polysaccharide and protein mixture that is the main component of specifically bacterial cell walls. Peptidoglycan is a molecule specific to bacteria and is not really found in archaea or in eukarya. It's important to keep that in mind. Peptidoglycan provides structural support and helps to maintain rigidity for the cell, as it is the main component of the bacterial cell walls.
If we take a look at our image down below, notice over here we're showing you a bacterial cell. We are focusing mainly on the bacterial cell wall, which is the light blue layer that goes all the way around. If you zoom into that light blue layer, what you'll notice is that the structure is mainly composed of peptidoglycan. What you see down below right here is the structure of peptidoglycan. It consists of polysaccharides—these are the polysaccharide components—but then it also has protein linkages. Peptidoglycan is really a polysaccharide and protein mixture.
We'll talk a lot more about the structure of peptidoglycan in our next video. But for now, this here concludes our brief introduction to peptidoglycan. We'll be able to get some practice in our next video.
