Inclusion Bodies in Xenosomes Purified on Percoll Gradients as Revealed by Electron Microscopy

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Abstract
A method is described for the isolation and purification of xenosomes, intracytoplasmic bacterial symbionts of the marine hymenostome Parauronema acutum, using percoll gradients. Xenosomes isolated by this procedure retained both their ability to kill susceptible Uronema strains and to infect homologous and heterologous P. acutum strains. Unexpectedly, both killer and non‐killer xenosomes were found to contain inclusion bodies, heretofore unseen in fixed whole cell preparations, in the form of double helices, which we have termed H‐bodies. The nature and function of these bodies is unknown.