Morphological Studies on the Cell of Vibrio cholerae : II. Some Observations on the Fine Structure of Flagellum and Cell Body

Fine structure of V. cholerae has been studied under electron microscopy in details, and some morphological observations on the flagellum and cell body were obtained and discussed as follows : 1. Morphological discussion on the basal body of flagellum was done historically from the viewpoint of literatures and with the retrospective experiments. As a result, the existence of membrane-bound basal body was shown to be an artifact arising from adherence of cell wall and cytoplasmic membrane fragments to flagella in the lysed preparations. 2. The basal body from V. cholerae consists of four rings 220 to 250 Å in diameter, arranged in two pairs and mounted on a rod. Distal rings associated with the cell wall, and proximal rings also associated with the cytoplasmic membrane. 3. In the ultrathin sections, the sheath of flagellum has a same triple layered structure as the cell wall. In negative staining, helical like structure of sheath was observed. 4. Hexagonal array was observed on the hook of each flagellum. 5. A clear space is suggested to be closely related with the structure and the function of flagellum in its location, and it consists of substances which is apt to resolve by a dehydrating and fixing agent. 6. The rhapidosome-like tubules, 165 to 170 Å in diameter, was observed in the cytoplasm.