Summary
The fine structure of Azotobacter vinelandii was examined using a micro-colony embedding method. With this technique the difficulty of obtaining well preserved bacterial flagella in thin sections of material prepared in the usual fashion for electron microscopy was overcome, as the cells and their appendages were held in their natural position. The insertion of flagella and their substructure as revealed by thin sectioning and negative staining was studied. The results obtained on the fine structure of the flagellum is discussed and a possible interpretation of the arrangement of sub-units is presented in a model. Some new inclusions and membranous structures in the cytoplasm of the cells are described. These structures do not appear to be involved in tellurite reduction. These is no evidence to indicate that the flagellar insertion sites showed any activity of tellurite reduction. Thus in Azotobacter, other systems seem to be responsible for the ability of the cells to reduce tellurite.
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Tchan, Y.T., Webber, A.J. Fine structure and tellurite reduction in azotobacter vinelandii. Archiv. Mikrobiol. 54, 215–228 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00408994
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00408994