Cell Wall Growth During Differentiation of Proteus Swarmers

This paper describes the process by which the cell wall of Proteus mirabilis , as measured by the presence of the O antigen, develops during the differentiation of swarmers from short cells on an agar surface. The sequence was followed by fluorescent-antibody staining, with both the direct and reverse methods. When the organisms were labeled with fluorescent antibody by the direct method, they showed a progressive diminution of the marker along the cell surface and some increase in the length of the bacteria. However, the label had become completely diluted out before typical swarmers developed. When the bacteria were exposed initially to unlabeled antibody by the reverse technique, and then incubated with fluorescent antibody, they showed a progressive increase both in the intensity of the label along their entire periphery and in cellular length, culminating in the formation of swarmers. It is concluded that in P. mirabilis , as in the few other gram-negative bacteria examined so far, cell wall synthesis takes place diffusely, i.e., by intercalation of new with old components along the length of the cell wall.