Abstract
THE wall of the bacterial cell is solid. The cell- wall may maintain its approximate shape after cytolysis ; on breaking it may present a jagged line of fracture 1. Within the cell-wall, and normally doubtless closely applied to it, is the cytoplasmic membrane enveloping a fluid or potentially fluid protoplasm. In electron micrographs the protoplasm often is appreciably separated from the cell-wall2. This is doubtless a shrinkage artefact due to desiccation in the electron microscope, which operates in a high vacuum. The protoplast and in particular the cytoplasmic membrane are stained and visible, the cell-wall unstained and not seen, in routine bacteriological preparations. Flagella, if present, arise from the protoplast and pass through the cell-wall, at least in vibrios. They are of uniform diameter somewhat characteristic of the bacterial species. They are not artefacts or mucous threads3. Capsules, as in the case of the pneumococcus, are extracellular gels surrounding the cell-wall4.
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MUDD, S. Submicroscopic Structure of the Bacterial Cell, as Shown by the Electron Microscope* . Nature 161, 302–303 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161302a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161302a0