Electron Microscopic Observations on the Fine Structure of Cell Walls of Chlamydia psittaci

Abstract

L-cell cultures were infected with elementary bodies (EB) of meningopneumonitis organisms. Cell walls were prepared from reticulate bodies (RB), which are the intracellular developmental forms into which EB are converted, and from EB at appropriate times after infection. When fragmented EB cell walls were shadowcast with platinum palladium alloy, about one-half of the fragments were seen to be composed of hexagonally arrayed structures on the inner side of the cell wall. When EB cell walls were negatively stained with phosphotungstic acid, they all showed this fine structural array. These macromolecular units were estimated to be about 18 nm in diameter. RB cell walls, harvested at various times after infection, were similarly stained; about 20% of RB walls at 15 hr after infection showed traces of these regular structures, but only 2% of them had the structures at 24 hr. When RB cell walls prepared from penicillin-containing culture were examined, they were observed to be similar to RB without penicillin. When EB cell walls were treated with formamide at 160 C, and then centrifuged in a 10 to 40% potassium tartrate density gradient, hexagonal particles about 20 nm in diameter were obtained as a middle band in the gradient column. These particles were not obtained from RB cell walls harvested from cultures with or without penicillin. It is concluded that the particles are macromolecular subunits located on the inner side of the EB cell walls, that the subunits probably provide the structural rigidity found in the EB, and that their synthesis is inhibited by penicillin.