Figure 1.

The structure of the M. leprae cell wall. The M. leprae cell wall consists of an inner and outer layer that surround a plasma membrane. The outermost layer includes PGLs that compose capsules. The electron-dense inner layer of cell wall contains PGN, AG, and mycolic acids. The outer cell wall, which is an electron-dense layer, consists of lipid-linked polysaccharides such as LAM, LM, and phthiocerol-containing lipids including phthiocerol dimycocerosate and dimycolyl trehalose. Mycolic acids link to arabinan chain termini and compose the inner leaflet of a pseudo lipid bilayer. An outer leaflet contains TMM mycolic acids and PDIM and PGL mycocerosoic acids. Small amounts of TMM also exist in the cell wall of M. leprae.