TIME-LAPSE PHOTOMICROGRAPHY OF THE FORMATION OF A FREE SPHERICAL GRANULE IN AN ESCHERICHIA COLI CELL END

Abstract

Hoffman, Heiner (New York University, New York), and Michael E. Frank. Time-lapse photomicrography of the formation of a free spherical granule in an Escherichia coli cell end. J. Bacteriol. 86:1075-1078. 1963.-Only a single case of the formation of a free spherical granule at an Escherichia coli cell end was found among several thousand cells recorded by time-lapse photomicrography. The spherical end body apparently arose immediately upon or soon after binary fission, at the newly formed cell end. Several minutes elapsed between the appearance of the end body and its full separation, apparently by constriction, from the mother cell. The end body showed no cytological changes during a 51-min period of observation after its separation from the mother cell. A hypothesis concerning the nature of end bodies and the mechanisms underlying their production is presented.