An S-layer (surface layer) is a part of the cell envelope commonly found in bacteria, as well as among archaea. It consists of a monomolecular layer composed of identical proteins or glycoproteins. This two dimensional structure is built via self-assembly and encloses the whole cell surface. Thus, the S-layer protein can represent up to 10-15% of the whole protein content of a cell . S-layer proteins are poorly or not conserved at all and can differ markedly even between related species. Dependi… (More on S-layer)