ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF PLASMOLYSIS IN ESCHERICHIA COLI

Abstract

Cota-Robles, Eugene H. (University of California, Riverside). Electron microscopy of plasmolysis in Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 85:499-503. 1963.-Escherichia coli cells plasmolyzed in 0.35 m sucrose reveal plasmolysis at one tip of a cell or in the center of dividing cells in which protoplast partition has been complete. Central plasmolysis reveals that protoplast separation can be completed before the invagination of the cell wall is complete. These studies support the concept that these cells divide by constriction. The strength of the union between cell wall and cytoplasm is not uniform around the entire cell. It is strongest along the sides of these rod-shaped cells and weakest at one tip of the single cell. Thus, a single cell generally forms one cup-shaped vacuole in which the cytoplasm has collapsed away from one tip of the cell.