Association of a small coryneform bacterium with the ratoon stunting disease of sugar-cane

1973 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 869 ◽  
Author(s):  
DS Teakle ◽  
PM Smith ◽  
DRL Steindl

When fibrovascular sap extracts of sugar-cane plants affected by the ratoon stunting disease (RSD) were centrifuged and the resuspended pellets negatively stained and examined in an electron microscope, cells of a small bacterium were always observed. The bacterium could be distinguished readily from other bacteria present by its small size (usually 1.0–2.5 µm long by 0.15–0.32 µm wide), the coryneform (club-shaped) morphology of some cells, and its permeability to negative stain revealing a thin cell wall surrounding a cytoplasmic membrane and coiled mesosomes. Since the small bacterium was never observed in fibrovascular extracts of RSD-free sugar-cane plants, it is a possible causal agent of RSD.

1977 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 843 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Weaver ◽  
DS Teakle ◽  
AC Hayward

The bacterium associated with ratoon stunting disease of sugar-cane was studied in thin sections of agar-embedded pellets of fibrovascular extracts, and in situ in the xylem of sugar-cane. The bacterium often possessed a single large lamellar mesosome, and the cell wall was smooth in outline and of the Gram-positive type. It lacked the acidic mucopolysaccharide capsule which was observed in several species of plant pathogenic coryneform bacteria. The bacterium was seen in the lumen and the pits of the xylem vessels and sometimes appeared to be in the xylem cell wall.


Author(s):  
L. V. Leak

Electron microscopic observations of freeze-fracture replicas of Anabaena cells obtained by the procedures described by Bullivant and Ames (J. Cell Biol., 1966) indicate that the frozen cells are fractured in many different planes. This fracturing or cleaving along various planes allows one to gain a three dimensional relation of the cellular components as a result of such a manipulation. When replicas that are obtained by the freeze-fracture method are observed in the electron microscope, cross fractures of the cell wall and membranes that comprise the photosynthetic lamellae are apparent as demonstrated in Figures 1 & 2.A large portion of the Anabaena cell is composed of undulating layers of cytoplasm that are bounded by unit membranes that comprise the photosynthetic membranes. The adjoining layers of cytoplasm are closely apposed to each other to form the photosynthetic lamellae. Occassionally the adjacent layers of cytoplasm are separated by an interspace that may vary in widths of up to several 100 mu to form intralamellar vesicles.


Author(s):  
Manfred E. Bayer

Bacterial viruses adsorb specifically to receptors on the host cell surface. Although the chemical composition of some of the cell wall receptors for bacteriophages of the T-series has been described and the number of receptor sites has been estimated to be 150 to 300 per E. coli cell, the localization of the sites on the bacterial wall has been unknown.When logarithmically growing cells of E. coli are transferred into a medium containing 20% sucrose, the cells plasmolize: the protoplast shrinks and becomes separated from the somewhat rigid cell wall. When these cells are fixed in 8% Formaldehyde, post-fixed in OsO4/uranyl acetate, embedded in Vestopal W, then cut in an ultramicrotome and observed with the electron microscope, the separation of protoplast and wall becomes clearly visible, (Fig. 1, 2). At a number of locations however, the protoplasmic membrane adheres to the wall even under the considerable pull of the shrinking protoplast. Thus numerous connecting bridges are maintained between protoplast and cell wall. Estimations of the total number of such wall/membrane associations yield a number of about 300 per cell.


1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Schulz ◽  
William A. Jensen

Ovules of Capsella bursa-pastoris at the dyad and tetrad stages of meiosis and at the megaspore and two-nucleate stages of the gametophyte were studied with the electron microscope. The cells of the dyad and tetrad are separated by aniline blue fluorescent cross walls and receive all types of organelles and autophagic vacuoles that were present in the meiocyte. Autophagic vacuoles enclose ribosomes and organelles and show reaction product for acid phosphatase. Autophagic vacuoles and some plastids are absorbed into the enlarging vacuoles of the growing megaspore. Other plastids appear to survive meiosis and there is no evidence for their de novo origin. Some mitochondria appear to degenerate in the enlarging megaspore but others look healthy and there is no evidence for the de novo origin of mitochondria. The nucleolus of the developing megaspore becomes very large and the cytoplasm is extremely dense with ribosomes. The cell wall is thickened by an electron-translucent, periodic acid – Schiff negative, aniline blue fluorescent material and contains plasmodesmata that link the megaspore with the nucellus. The plasmalemma of the growing megaspore produces microvilluslike extensions into this wall that disappear with the formation of the two-nucleate gametophyte. Plasmodesmata disappear from the cell wall at the four-nucleate stage.


1980 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2825-2828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando E. Prado ◽  
Olga L. Fleischmacher ◽  
Marta A. Vattuone ◽  
Antonio R. Sampietro
Keyword(s):  

1972 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Read ◽  
R. W. Reed

The replicative events of a virulent phage (A25) infection of a group A Streptococcus (T253) were studied using the electron microscope. The first intracellular evidence of phage replication in a cell occurred 30 min after infection with arrest of cell division and increase in the nucleic acid pool. Phage heads were evident in the nucleic acid pool of the cells 45 min after infection. Release of phages occurred by splitting of the cell wall along discrete lines. This appeared to be at sites of active wall synthesis, i.e., near the region of septum formation. Many phage components were released but relatively few complete phages indicating a relatively inefficient replicative system.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-321
Author(s):  
K. ROBERTS ◽  
D. H. NORTHCOTE

Sycamore suspension callus cells have been partially synchronized to give a culture with a mitotic index of 15%. Living dividing cells of the culture have been examined with Nomarski differential interference optics and a comparable study made on fixed cells with the electron microscope. An organized band of reticulate cytoplasm partially encircles the nucleus at mitosis. The cell divides by the formation of a phragmosome which grows across the large vacuole; this allows the organization of the cytoplasm which forms the cell plate to be examined separately from the more general cytoplasm of the cell. The cell plate grows from one side of the cell to the other and down its length a complete developmental sequence can be seen. The Golgi bodies and the endoplasmic reticulum are probably involved in the formation of material for the construction of the cell plate and young cell wall. Microfibrils are formed within the plate in the more mature regions, while material contained within vesicles is incorporated at the young growing edge. At the edge of the plate microtubules are found and these correspond to the fibrillar appearance of the phragmoplast seen with the optical microscope. In the living cell an active movement of organelles along the peripheral cytoplasm can be seen and with fixed cells viewed with the electron microscope microtubules are often found adjacent to the plasmalemma and lying close to mitochondria, crystal-containing bodies and plastids. The appearance of crystal-containing bodies and plastids containing phytoferritin is described.


1959 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Gordon Whaley ◽  
Hilton H. Mollenhauer ◽  
Joyce E. Kephart

Maize root tips were fixed in potassium permanganate, embedded in epoxy resin, sectioned to show silver interference color, and studied with the electron microscope. All the cells were seen to contain an endoplasmic reticulum and apparently independent Golgi structures. The endoplasmic reticulum is demonstrated as a membrane-bounded, vesicular structure comparable in many aspects to that of several types of animal cells. With the treatment used here the membranes appear smooth surfaced. The endoplasmic reticulum is continuous with the nuclear envelope and, by contact at least, with structures passing through the cell wall. The nuclear envelope is characterized by discontinuities, as previously reported for animal cells. The reticula of adjacent cells seem to be in contact at or through the plasmodesmata. Because of these contacts the endoplasmic reticulum of a given cell appears to be part of an intercellular system. The Golgi structures appear as stacks of platelet-vesicles which apparently may, under certain conditions, produce small vesicles around their edges. Their form changes markedly with development of the cell.


1972 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 909-915 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Singh ◽  
K.-J. Cheng ◽  
J. W. Costerton ◽  
E. S. Idziak ◽  
J. M. Ingram

The site of the cell barrier to actinomycin-D uptake was studied using a wild-type Escherichia coli strain P and its cell envelope-defective filamentous mutants, strains 6γ and 12γ, both of which 'leak' β-galactosidase and alkaline phosphatase into the medium during growth indicating both membrane and cell-wall defects. Actinomycin-D entered the cells of these two mutant strains as evidenced by the inhibition of both 14C-uracil incorporation and synthesis of the induced β-galactosidase system. Under similar conditions, no inhibition occurred in the wild-type strain and its sucrose-lysozyme prepared spheroplasts. Actinomycin-D did, however, inhibit the above-mentioned systems in the wild-type sucrose-lysozyme spheroplasts prepared in the presence of 2 mM EDTA. The experimental data indicate that although the cell wall may act as a primary barrier or sieve to actinomycin-D, the cytoplasmic membrane should be considered the final and determinative barrier to this antibiotic.


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