I06 THE CYTOLOGY AND LIFE-HISTORY OF BACTERIA 



The niicrocysts of some myxobacteria are contained in a complex fruiting 

 body (Chapter VIII), but those of eubacteria and cytophagas are free. 



The cytological processes accompanying the maturation of the microcyst 

 are similar in all these cases. The nuclear material forms a chromatinic rod, 

 similar to that which precedes sporulation in Bacillacccv. The rod divides into 



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i 



I 



(Reproduced from the Journal of Hygiene.) 



Fig. 45 



MATURATION OF THE MICROCYST IN BACT. COLI 



Sexual forms. The nuclear material may be seen at various stages of division and refusion. 

 The division is usually incomplete and the fusion, autogamous. Occasionally it is complete 

 and the fusion, truly sexual. 



two spherical, nuclear bodies which again fuse and form the mature, resting 

 nucleus. The process is almost identical in myxobacteria and most smooth 

 eubacteria, in Nocardia and to some extent in the giant bacterium Oscillospira. 

 Rough eubacteria usually form the resting nucleus from the secondary nuclear 

 phase (Section E). 



Two processes of fusion are discernible in the case of the myxobacteria 

 and smooth eubacteria. Firstly, the rod-shaped nucleus arises by the fusion 

 of the nuclear units of the cell, this divides and again fuses. The division of 



