Abstract
Glaucocystis nostochinearum is a eukaryotic organism with “chloroplasts” that have usually been assumed to be “cyanelles” — i.e., endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. Previous attempts by others to support this assumption by demonstrating the presence of a limiting peptidoglycan envelope have been unsuccessful.
In the present study disruption of intact Glaucocystis cells with a glass tissue homogenizer permitted the isolation of the uniquely-shaped cyanelles. That these cyanelles were lunited by a peptidoglycan-containing envelope was concluted from the following evidence: (1) stability of isolated cyanelles in distilled water as determined by the preservation of their intactness and peculiar asymmetrical shape; (2) lysozyme sensitivity as demonstrated by lysis of isolated cyanelles when treated with low concentrations of lysozyme; (3) inhibition of the lysozyme-mediated lysis by N-acetyl-glucosamine-2, a known competitive inhibitor of lysozyme, (4) visualization of a thin, electron dense layer between the two limiting membranes around the cyanelle, and (5) isolation and identification of the peptidoglycan-specific amino acid, diaminopimelic acid, from the cyanelles.
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Scott, O.T., Castenholz, R.W. & Bonnett, H.T. Evidence for a peptidoglycan envelope in the cyanelles of Glaucocystis nostochinearum Itzigsohn. Arch. Microbiol. 139, 130–138 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401987
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401987