Cell Wall Replication in Salmonella typhosa

Abstract

Changes in the fluorescence of the cell wall of Salmonella typhosa (TY2 W) were studied during growth after direct labeling with fluorescein conjugated homologous or "anti-O" globulins. Fluorescence decreased evenly with culture growth and cell division, but the addition ofchloramphenicol resulted in large, nondividing cells that showed increasing interruption of fluorescence of the wall marker. The process thus differs from the equatorial origin and discrete hemispherical addition of new wall previously described in Streptococcus pyogenes. These findings, in addition to demonstrating the formation of new wall in the presence of chloramphenicol, appear consistent only with the concept that wall replication in the salmonellas occurs by means of diffuse intercalation of new materials among old.