[Brucella L-forms, their revertants and initial cultures]

The transformation of Brucella into a relatively stable bacterial L-form leads to a sharp decrease in virulence and the loss of their capacity for agglutination under the action of commercial brucellosis antiserum. When reverting from the L-form, Brucella cells partially restore their virulence and agglutinability. The pronounced restoration of these properties can be observed in revertants from the L-forms, obtained in vivo. All revertants are less virulent than the initial strains. The transformation into the L-forms is accompanied by a sharp decrease in their electrokinetic mobility, which is indicative of profound transformations of their peripheral structures leading to the exposure of the electrically inert layers of the cell wall.