Morphological study of the reversion to bacillary form, of Bacillus megaterium protoplasts

Abstract

Protoplasts of Bacillus megaterium readily reverted to bacillary form in liquid media and when plated in a soft-agar layer onto the surface of appropriate agar media. Three phases of the reversion sequence could be differentiated by phase contrast microscopy: (i) increase in size of the individual protoplasts, (ii) non oriented division of the protoplasts and (iii) outgrowth of the bacillary forms. With time-lapse photomicrography, reversion sequences of single protoplasts were demonstrated.