ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDIES ON STREPTOCOCCI: I. M ANTIGEN

doi:10.1084/jem.130.5.1063

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ARTICLE

ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDIES ON STREPTOCOCCI : I. M ANTIGEN

John Swanson M.D.¹, Konrad C. Hsu Ph.D.¹, and Emil C. Gotschlich M.D.¹

¹ From the Department of Microbiology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York 10032, and The Rockefeller University, New York 10021

The presence of M antigens on group A streptococci is associatedwith hairlike fimbriae that cover the surface of the streptococcalcell wall and are demonstrable by electron microscopy. Thesefimbriae also may be associated with R antigen. Like M protein,the surface fimbriae are destroyed by trypsin treatment andreappear when "trypsinized" streptococci are reincubated infresh, trypsin-free broth.

Ferritin-conjugated, type-specificantibodies localize on homologous M+ cells in a pattern suggestiveof several M antigenic sites along the length of individualsurface fimbria. The M-associated fimbriae remain on the residualcell wall after removal of the bulk of group-specific polysaccharidethrough nitrous acid extraction. This suggests attachment ofthe fimbriae to the mucopeptide and minor polysaccharide componentsremaining in the nitrous acid-extracted wall.

The pattern oflocalization of ferritin-conjugated antibodies on homologousstreptococci before and after trypsin exposure and upon reincubationof the trypsinized cells in fresh medium suggests the followinghypothesis: M antigen is secreted by the cell, is partiallyexcreted through the otherwise intact cell wall, and is boundby the wall so that M protein occupies a peripheral, exposedposition on the surfaces of the streptococcal cell wall.

Submitted on July 3, 1969

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