[Structural features of the elementary bodies of bacterial L-forms]

Elementary bodies have been detected in the L-forms of various bacteria, irrespective of their strain, the phase of development and stabilization of their culture. Elementary bodies have been found to have all organoids peculiar to other L-culture cells (the unit membrane, the nucleoid, ribosomes, more seldom mesosome-like structures and the outer membrane of the cell wall), which is indirectly indicative of their possible viability. The cytoplasmic membrane of elementary bodies contains dehydrogenases (detected in the NBT test), has the hydrophobic layer structure typical of bacterial membranes and, judging by the results of the ferritin test, possesses the same antigenic properties as the cytoplasmic membrane of other L-culture cells. Nevertheless, the above-mentioned properties are far from being the attribute of every elementary body, and the completeness of their manifestation is not directly related with the size of elementary bodies.