There is an urgent need for new antimicrobial strategies to keep pathogens in check. This applies specifically to Gram-negative bacteria, which are protected from antibiotic intervention by a thick second membrane. Microbiologists from the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have compared the effects of five different substances that inhibit the formation of this outer membrane. As well as the expected consequences, they found a range of additional cellular responses in the bacterial cell, depending on the substance. ...
