Researchers at Kanazawa University and the University of Tsukuba report in Nanoscale that the physical properties of extracellular bacterial membrane vesicles are significantly diverse.   The properties for a single type of bacterium as well as for different types are found to be highly heterogeneous.

The full text of this article is available on the official website of Kanazawa University:
https://www.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/latest-research/78244.

Figure. (A) Scanning electron microscopic image of a bacterial cell and extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs).  (B) Schematic drawing of MVs observation using atomic force microscopy phase imaging. (C) Mapping of MVs’ physical properties using atomic force microscopy phase imaging. MVs are color-coded on a scale ranging from “non-adherent/hard” (reddish-coloured spheres) to “adherent/soft” (greenish-coloured spheres).