• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.280-284
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• 1994

Lack of lysosomal fusion with symbiosomes in symbiont-bearing Amoeba proteus may be due either to the presence of a component in the symbiosome membrane or to the absence of a component needed in the fusion process. Using monoclonal antibody as a probe, lipopolysaccharides were identified as symbiosome-membrane components contributed by symbionts and were found to be exposed on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. In order to test whether lipopolysaccharides may play a role in the prevention of lysosome-symbiosome fusion, the antilipopolysaccharides antibody was microinjected and processed for double immunostaining in conjuction with anti-lysosome antibody as a lysosome-fusion indicator. Microinjection of the anti-LPS antibody caused symbiosomes to fuse with lysosomes, suggesting that X-bacterial lipopolysaccharides could be 'fusion-preventing' factors.