Abstract
In contrast to our understanding of the composition of the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria, the biogenesis of this organelle has remained elusive. This is in part because factors involved in OM assembly have been refractive to chemical and biological analyses. A recent study shows how small molecules and chemical conditionality can be used to probe the biogenesis of the OM at the molecular level and suggests that similar techniques can be used to identify factors involved in the assembly of other organelles.