Morphologic features, structure, and adherence to bovine turbinate cells of three haemophilus somnus variants.
Three colony variants (translucent, small opaque, and large opaque) of Haemophilus somnus recovered during infection studies of chicken embryos were examined using electron microscopy. Ruthenium red-strained H somnus preparations revealed no capsule in any variants. Pili were not seen on phosphotungstate-negative stained preparations. The translucent variant was thin-walled and had an irregular, pleomorphic rod shape. The small opaque variant had a thicker cell wall and an even rod shape. The large opaque variant had the thickest, most rigid wall of the 3, with uniform rod morphologic features. When each of the 3 variants was allowed to contact bovine epithelial turbinate cells, the translucent and small opaque were significantly (P less than 0.01) more adherent than was the large opaque variant.
D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D002642:Chick Embryo; D004848:Epithelium / Q000382:microbiology; D006190:Haemophilus / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008583:Meningitis, Haemophilus / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D008590:Meningoencephalitis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D014420:Turbinates / Q000382:microbiology*