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Isolation and ultrastructural study of the flagellar basal body complex from Rhodobacter sphaeroides WS8 (wild type)
1Departamento de Genética Molecular, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, UNAM, México D.F.
Abstract:
Filament-Hook-Basal Body (FHBB) complexes were isolated from the purple non-sulphur facultative anaerobic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides (WS8) by lysozyme digestion of the cells followed by an alkaline treatment and ultracentrifugation, and they were analysed by electron microscopy. The structure is composed of a filament linked through an enlarged junction to the hook and a basal body composed of L and P rings, a rod, and a less well-defined cytoplasmic ring that has evidence of additional attached structures. Hook-basal body complexes isolated from a mutant (PG) which produces an extended hook but no filament shows basal body structures identical to those of wild-type FHBBs.