Coralline shape of the bacterial nucleoid after cryofixation

Abstract

A new procedure of immunostaining sections of cryofixed and freeze-substituted Escherichia coli shows that DNA extends from its bulk into small ribosome-free spaces throughout the cytoplasm, resulting in a coralline-shaped nucleoid. Low-resolution imaging of a bacterium reconstructed from serial sections demonstrated that the small excrescencies are not resolved. The resulting photograph shows the same features as phase-contrast light micrographs.