T-MYCOPLASMAS: A STUDY OF THE MORPHOLOGY, ULTRASTRUCTURE AND MODE OF DIVISION OF SOME HUMAN STRAINS

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Abstract
The morphology of 10 strains of T-mycoplasma was studied in wet preparations of viable cells by darkfield, phase-contrast and interference microscopy, and in fixed preparations by various techniques of electron microscopy. Mycoplasma-like artefacts in the horse-serum component of the medium were eliminated by filtration. All 10 strains were similar. Individual cells were spherical, 0·25·1·0 μm in size, with a bounding trilaminar membrane, 10 nm thick and containing 7·5-1 2-5-nm particles, and a layer of pilus-like projections, 5–8 nm long, on the outer surface. A possible capsular matrix was observed only by the pseudoreplica technique. The cells contained 12–15-nm ribosomes, nuclear fibroids 7·5–9 nm wide, and vacuoles. During replication, the cell elongated slightly and the ribsomes migrated to the ends of the cell leaving a ribosome-free area into which the bounding membrane invaginated to form a bud. The bud eventually separated by completion of the process of invagination; a cross-septum did not form. Usually only a single bud developed but sometimes two appeared simultaneously.

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