immunochemical studies on spore coat proteins of bacillus megaterium

An irrununochemical staining technique for spore coatproteins was developed using colloidal-gold as a secondantibody. For reducing the non-specific binding andincreasing the specific binding, affinity-purified IgGwas used as a first antibody. In sporulating cells ata late stage of sporulation (tlO), gold particles werefound not only in the spore coat but also in the mothercell cytoplasm, suggesting that some coat proteins weresynthesized in the cytoplasm. Using the affinity-purifiedantibody to 48K protein, it was shown that this proteinwas a component of the outer coat of BacillusmegateriumATCC 12872.