SUMMARY: The tovarious stages of the reproductive cycle in freshly transplanted cultures of avian tubercle bacilli were recorded by a series of successive electron micrographs. An early stage of cytoplasmic differentiation is described in which discrete cellular units form inside the elongating filaments. Their significance and relation to the vacuolization seen at later stages is discussed. Evidence is produced to show that the dense bodies of mycobacteria are not nuclei. Free granules do not appear to play any part in the reproductive cycle in the normal type of development. In mycelial variants lysis is often seen to initiate new growth which starts from submicroscopical elements and micro-rods.
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