Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A bacterial cell whose cell wall has been degraded, often by the action of an antibiotic or a lysozyme, causing the cell to assume a spherical shape.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun cytology A cell from which the cell wall has been removed.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • S. aureus and the spheroplast of E. coli, supporting that this peak is indeed mainly contributed by the cell wall, instead of purely the lipid layer.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Ting-Ting Liu et al. 2009

  • S. aureus, while that in the spheroplast of E. coli is comparable with that in native E. coli, indicating that this peak is contributed by other components than the cell wall as well.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Ting-Ting Liu et al. 2009

  • Escherichia coli (E. coli) with lysozyme also generated a cell wall-less spheroplast, the SERS spectrum of which was noticeably different from the intact bacteria.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Ting-Ting Liu et al. 2009

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