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Uptake of Bacteria by Isolated Higher Plant Protoplasts

Abstract

ISOLATED higher plant protoplasts can take up particles, by endocytosis, into vesicles in their cytoplasm. The uptake of tobacco mosaic virus, ferritin, and polystyrene latex spheres has been reported1–4. Particles up to 0.3 µm have been observed to be actively taken up1. The size of some vesicles as seen in thin sections of fixed and embedded isolated protoplasts, however, indicates that particles considerably larger than 0.3 µm could be accommodated in such vesicles in the cytoplasm. We have therefore investigated the possibility of uptake of bacteria into higher plant protoplasts, using Rhizobium and pea leaf protoplasts as our experimental system.

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DAVEY, M., COCKING, E. Uptake of Bacteria by Isolated Higher Plant Protoplasts. Nature 239, 455–456 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/239455b0

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