ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we examine the anatomy of the bacterial cell. We need to understand the structures associated with bacterial cells because so many of them have an important role in the generation of disease. As you read this chapter, keep in mind what you learned in previous chapters, especially structure-function relationships. As we saw in Part I, at the molecular level the three-dimensional structures of proteins are directly responsible for their functions. The same can be said for the cell wall, capsule, fimbriae, pili, and flagella, which are all structures associated with the bacterial cell. The structure-function relationships of the bacterial cell show us how bacterial structures influence the development of disease. These structures will become core objectives for our studies and will be mentioned repeatedly throughout subsequent chapters.
