L-Type Variation and Bacterial Reproduction by Large Bodies as Seen in Electron Micrographic Studies of Bacteroides funduliformis

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Abstract
Electron micrographs are presented that show a mode of bacterial reproduction differing from that of binary fission, seen in a large anaerobic bacterium. B. funduliformis. Bulbous enlargements develop in the cells and form large round bodies from which multiple filaments grow out. These filaments segment to yield new cells. A strain of L type variant induced from a Bacteroides by penicillin exhibited cell forms similar to those of the large parent bacillus, but smaller in size. The large Bacteroides, its L variant and the organisms of the pleuronpneumonialike L group all have in common the ability to reproduce by means of large round bodies.