Abstract
THE “giant micro-organism” Caryophanon latum was first described by Peshkoff as the “missing link” between the blue-green algae and the bacteria. He isolated the microorganism from cow manure near Moscow, noting its unusual morphology including “its long rod forms containing a varying number of nuclei”1. Others have since isolated this organism in England and in the United States2,3. Pringsheim and Robinow have described this micro-organism. Caryophanon latum Peshkoff as “a very large Gram negative, peritrichously flagellated bacterium of unusual structural complexity”2. On the other hand, Provost and Doetsch reported the organism to be a Gram positive bacterium, susceptible to egg-white lysozyme and able to form protoplasts readily4. The work described here was designed to obtain further evidence as to the bacterial nature of the micro-organism by analysing the isolated and purified cell walls of Caryophanon latum for its constituent amino sugars, amino acids and monosaccharides.
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References
Peshkoff, M. A., J. Gen. Biol. (Russian), 1, 598 (1940).
Pringsheim, E. G., and Robinow, C. F., J. Gen. Microbiol., 1, 267 (1947).
Kelley, L. M., thesis, Ohio State Univ. (1952).
Provost, P., and Doetsch, R. N., J. Gen. Microbiol., 28, 547 (1962).
Becker, B., Lechevelier, M. P., and Lechevelier, H. A., Applied Microbiology, 13, 236 (1965).
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BECKER, B., WORTZEL, E. & NELSON, J. Chemical Composition of the Cell Wall of Caryophanon latum. Nature 213, 300 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/213300a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/213300a0
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