Electron Microscopy of the Action of Polymyxin on Leptospirae

Cytological Aspects of Antimicrobial Antibiosis Iii

“…Fluorescent derivatives and fluorescence microscopy have demonstrated the site of action of polymyxin to be the cell membrane (Newton, 1955), and electron microscopy of treated cells in shadowed preparations showed the loss of intracellular constituents (Newton, 1953). The cell membrane has also been implicated by electron microscopy of shadowed preparations of disrupted bacteria which had been treated with polymyxin (Few, 1954), and by shadowed preparations of Leptospira (Bystricky, Ladzianska, and Halasa, 1962). Protoplasts prepared from polymyxin-treated cells showed differences when shadowed preparations were observed with the electron microscope (Newton, 1955).…”