[Ultrastructure of the meningococcus in logarithmic and stationary development phases]

The complex study of Neisseria meningitidis cultures A-208 in the time course of their development has disclosed that broth cultures in the logarithmic and stationary phases of their development are most valid on account of all their biological properties (the specific character of the reaction of agglutination, viability, the morphology of colonies and cells in light and electron microscopy). The use of scanning electron microscopy has made it possible to reveal bubbly endotoxin excretion in N. meningitidis and funnel-shaped depressions on their surface corresponding, probably, to nucleoid epicenters . In ultrathin sections some previously unknown features of the ultrastructure of N. meningitidis in the logarithmic and stationary phase of their development have been detected: (a) the morphological heterogeneity of N. meningitidis represented by cells of the "light" (L) and "dark" (D) types; (b) the surface structures of meningococcal cells from the cultures in the stationary phase of development show the tendency to smoothing out, which is accompanied by their sharper differentiation.