THE BACTERIAL NUCLEOID VISUALIZED BY FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY OF CELLSLYSED WITHIN AGAROSE - COMPARISON OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI AND SPIROCHETESOF THE GENUS BORRELIA
Bj. Hinnebusch et Aj. Bendich, THE BACTERIAL NUCLEOID VISUALIZED BY FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY OF CELLSLYSED WITHIN AGAROSE - COMPARISON OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI AND SPIROCHETESOF THE GENUS BORRELIA, Journal of bacteriology, 179(7), 1997, pp. 2228-2237
The nucleoids of Escherichia coli and the spirochetes Borrelia burgdor
feri and Borrelia hermsii, agents of Lyme disease and relapsing fever,
were examined by epifluorescence microscopy of bacterial cells embedd
ed in agarose and lysed in situ with detergent and protease, The typic
al E. coli nucleoid was a rosette in which 20 to 50 long loops of DNA
emanated from a dense node of DNA, The percentages of cells in a popul
ation having nucleoids,vith zero, one, two, and three nodes varied wit
h growth rate and growth phase, The borrelia nucleoid, in contrast, wa
s a loose network of DNA strands devoid of nodes, This nucleoid struct
ure difference correlates with the unusual genome of Borrelia species,
which consists primarily of linear replicons, including a 950-kb line
ar chromosome and linear plasmids, This method provides a simple, dire
ct means to analyze the structure of the bacterial nucleoid.