Abstract
THE intracellular parasite Mycobacterium lepraemurium is surrounded by an electron–transparent zone inside the phagocytic vacuole of the infected cell1–3. It is uncertain whether the material it contains, which appears structureless in sections in the electron microscope, is of bacterial or host origin. It is distinct from the narrow “micro-capsule”3, which is a firmly attached part of the isolable cell wall of the organism. We have described4,5 the zone as a “spacer” separating some of the bacteria inside infected cultured rat fibroblasts from the potentially bacteriolytic lysosomal contents. We report here some preliminary information on the nature and origin of the zone.
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DRAPER, P., REES, R. Electron-transparent Zone of Mycobacteria may be a Defence Mechanism. Nature 228, 860–861 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/228860a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/228860a0
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