Electron Microscopy of the Combination of Antibodies with Flagellar Antigen and with a Pyocine

Abstract

Micrographs are presented of antibodies in combination with flagella of Salmonella typhi and with a phage-bound pyocine Rmc, which is supposed to be the tail of a defective bacteriophage from Pseudomonas aeruginosa . The pyocine preparation seems to offer advantages for the study of antibody-antigen complexes. Under the conditions of our experiments, the surfaces of the antigenic structures are saturated with antibody layers approximately 95 A in thickness, i.e., slightly less than half the accepted lengths of 7 S antibody molecules. Our interpretation is that the antibody is attached by combining sites at the ends of the molecules to form loops along the surface of the antigenic structures.