Loading...
STUDIES ON FIBRILS PRODUCED BY MYXOCOCCUS XANTHUS
Burchard, R. P. Kloetzel, J. A.
Burchard, R. P.
Kloetzel, J. A.
Citations
Altmetric:
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Issue Date
1975
Submitted date
2023-01-31
Files
Loading...
PDF
Adobe PDF, 35.94 MB
Other Titles
Abstract
4 - 5 rm diameter fibrils were originally observed in 2% phosphotungstate- negatively stained, 10* x g supernatant fractions of French Pressure Cell-disruptedM. xanthus FB vegetative cells. The fibrils are also present in the periplasmic fraction prepared by osmotic shock; treatment of cells with pronase (100 jig/ml; 30 min.) prior to osmotic shock increases the number of fibrils observed. They are also present in 10° Xie pellets of culture medium in which logarithmic phase cells had been growing. Aggregates of fibrils are observed in association with gliding cells on filmed electron microscope grids which have been pressed on the edges of colonies. Cells of at least one non-motile mutant also produce these structures. One hypothesis concerning the nature of the fibrils is that they are comparable to eukaryotic actin. This was based on their structure and on the presence of a major protein constituent (molecular weight of approximately 50,000) recovered in a procedure designed to extract actin from ™. xanthus. However, attempts to decorate the fibrils with rabbit heavy meromyosin have been unsuccessful. Not all fibrils are sedimented by centrifugation at 150,000 x g for 90 min. Fibrils are restitant to digestion by pronase and by lysozyme; treatment with sodium dedecyl] sulfate (1 %; 70 3 does not alter their morphology. We hypothesize that fibrils, produced by vegetative cells, serve as tracks on which cells glide. These tracks may account for the phase-bright trails left by gliders on agar.
Citation
2nd International Symposium on the Biology of Myxobacteria, 11
Publisher
DOI
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Additional Links
Embedded video
Type
Book chapter
conference paper
conference paper
Language
en
Description
Series/Report no.
ISSN
EISSN
ISBN
ISMN
Gov't Doc #
Sponsors
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International