All bacteria utilize the glycopeptide polymer peptidoglycan to shield themselves from environmental stress. Although often thought of as a "conserved" feature of the cell wall, peptidoglycan exhibits multiple levels of structural heterogeneity across our microbiota. Different bacteria use unique combinations of building blocks to assemble the biopolymer as well as collections of enzymes to remodel the scaffold during growth and division. This degradative process leads to a plethora of individual repeating units, which may escape the bacterium and activate host innate immune pathways.