title: Morphologic features, structure, and adherence to bovine turbinate cells of three haemophilus somnus variants.
abstract: 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.
mesh_terms: 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*