Figure 6.

(a–f) Force maps taken on newly separated cells at exponential phase, indenting the cell wall (a–c) and the whole cell (d–f), showing little variation on the existing cell wall and the whole cell but an increased stiffness of the newly exposed septal material inside the white dotted line. Each black inset scale bar represents 500 nm. (g) Image showing the concentric ring pattern (black inset scale bar represents 200 nm) and histogram showing data for this new septal material (shaded) compared with the older cell wall (solid) (bin size = 0.001 Nm⁻¹).