Morphological changes of Vibrio cholerae organisms in glucose saline

Abstract

Morphological changes in Vibrio cholerae harvested from 18 hr growth on nutrient agar surface and incubated in glucose saline at 37° have been studied by electron microscopy using metal shadowing, uranyl staining and thin sectioning techniques. Within the 6 hr incubation period, a vacuolar region has been found to separate the cell wall from the protoplasmic body presumably at one polar end. Subsequently such separation has been found all round the periphery of the protoplasmic body, which assumes a round form of average dimension 0.4 ± 0.05 µ. Within the 24 hr incubation period, majority of the cells (60 to 70 %) are rounded and of these a significant fraction (15 to 20 %) contained bodies limited by one single membrane. It is suggested that these bodies represent the protoplasts of V. cholerae.