1887

Abstract

Transmission electron microscopy of thin sectioned cells of the honeybee spiroplasma BC3 revealed evidence of a helically twisted ribbon closely associated with the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane. The cellular distribution of p55-fibril protein as demonstrated by immunogold staining with anti-p55 antibody was consistent with the presence of p55 in this ribbon. We conclude that spiroplasma fibrils are arranged in a single helically twisted ribbon rather than forming a contractile sheath or branched axial fibre. Immunogold staining with anti-p25-spiralin antibody confirmed that this protein is localized in the plasma membrane and also showed that it occurs in extracellular strands. These strands may be antigenically distinct from the integral form of the protein.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-131-5-983
1985-05-01
2024-05-02
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/micro/131/5/mic-131-5-983.html?itemId=/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-131-5-983&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Archer D. B., Townsend R. 1981; Immunoelec-trophoretic separation of spiroplasma antigens. Journal of General Microbiology 123:61–68
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bowen B., Steinberg J., Laemmli U. K., Weintraub H. 1980; The detection of DNA-binding proteins by protein blotting. Nucleic Acids Research 8:1–20
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Butler G., Harris J. I., Hartley B. S., Leberman R. 1967; Reversible blocking of peptide amino groups by maleic anhydride. Biochemical Journal 103:78P
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Carlemalm E., Garavito R. M., Villiger W. 1982; Resin development for electron microscopy and an analysis of embedding at low temperature. Journal of Microscopy 126:123–143
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Cole R. M., Tully S. G., Popkin T. J., Bové J. M. 1973; Morphology, ultrastructure and bacter-iophage infection of the helical mycoplasma-like organism (Spiroplasama citri, gen. nov., sp. nov.) cultured from ‘stubborn’ disease of citrus. Journal of Bacteriology 115:367–386
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Crowle A. J. 1961 Immunodiffusion New York: Academic Press;
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Dixon H. B. F., Perham R. N. 1968; Reversible blocking of amino groups with citraconic anhydride. Biochemical Journal 109:312–314
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Garnier M., Clerc M., Bové J. M. 1984; Growth and division of Spiroplasma citri: elongation and elementary helices. Journal of Bacteriology 158:23–28
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Gertler A. 1971; Selective, reversible loss of elastolytic activity of elastase and subtilisin from electrostatic changes due to maleylation. European Journal of Biochemistry 23:36–40
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hawkes R., Niday E., Gordon J. 1982; A dot-immunobinding assay for monoclonal and other antibodies. Analytical Biochemistry 119:142–147
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Horne R. W. 1970; The ultrastructure of myco-plasma and mycoplasma-like organisms. Micron 2:19–38
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kleinschmidt A. K. 1968; Monolayer techniques in electron microscopy of nucleic acid molecules. Methods in Enzymology 22:361–377
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Laemmli U.K. 1970; Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature London: 227:680–685
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Markham P. G., Townsend R., Bar-Joseph M., Daniels M. J., Plaskitt K. A., Meddins B. M. 1974; Spiroplasmas are the causal agents of citrus little-leaf disease. Annals of Applied Biology 78:49–57
    [Google Scholar]
  15. PalaciÁn E. 1979; Solubilisation of membrane-bound transpeptidase from Streptomyces strain K-11 with 2,3-dimethylmaleic anhydride. Revista espanola defisiologia 35:481–484
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Razin S. 1978; The Mycoplasmas. Microbiological Reviews 42:414–470
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Razin S., Hasin M., Ne’eman Z., Rottem S. 1973; Isolation, chemical composition and ultra-structural features of the cell membrane of the mycoplasma-like organism Spiroplasma citri. Journal of Bacteriology 116:1421–1435
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Robertson J. G., Wells B., Bisseling T., Farnden T., Farnden K. J. F., Johnston A. W. B. 1984; Immuno-gold localisation of leghaemoglobin in the plant cytoplasm in nitrogen-fixing root nodules of pea. Nature London: 311254–256
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Towbin H., Staehelin T., Gordon J. 1979; Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacryl-amide gels to nitrocellulose sheets: procedure and some applications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 764350–4354
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Townsend R. 1983a; Spiroplasma fibrils. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 56:447–452
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Townsend R. 1983b; Mycoplasma-like organisms from plants with ‘yellows’ diseases lack a spiroplasma-specific antigen. Journal of General Microbiology 129:1959–1964
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Townsend R., Archer D. B. 1983; A fibril protein antigen specific to Spiroplasma. Journal of General Microbiology 129:199–206
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Townsend R., Archer D. B., Plaskitt K. A. 1980a; Purification and preliminary characterisation of spiroplasma fibrils. Journal of Bacteriology 142:694–700
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Townsend R., Burgess J., Plaskitt K. A. 1980b; Morphology and ultrastructure of helical and nonhelical strains of Spiroplasma citri. Journal of Bacteriology 142:973–981
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Waters H. 1982; Light and electron microscopy. In Plant and Insect Mycoplasma Techniques101–151 Daniels M. J., Markham P. G. London: Croom Helm;
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Williamson D. L., Whitcomb R. F., Tully J. G. 1978; The spiroplasma deformation test, a new serological method. Current Microbiology 1:203–207
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Wilson H. J., Goodman R. M. 1982 A framework for motility and morphology of spiroplasmas. In Abstracts of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology – 1982 Washington DC: American Society for Microbiology;
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Wróblewski H. 1981; Electrophoretic analysis of the arrangement of spiralin and other major proteins in isolated Spiroplasma citri cell membranes. Journal of Bacteriology 145:61–67
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Wróblewski H., Johansson K.-E., Hjerten S. 1977; Purification and characterisation of spiralin, the main protein of the Spiroplasma citri membrane. Biochimica et biophysica acta 465:275–289
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-131-5-983
Loading
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-131-5-983
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error