Massachusolls Gyopal Hospital

GENERAL HOSPITAL ZB /i D4 MCLEAN HOSPITAL
BAKER MEMORIAL 4 y W. FRANKLIN Woop, M.D.
PHILLIPS HOUSE DIRECTOR

 

 

BURNHAM MEMORIAL FOR CHILDREN
HALL- MERCER HOSPITAL STORROW HOUSE
HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL (CONVALESCENTS)
VINCENT MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

IN LINCOLN

 

DEAN A. CLARK. M.D.
GENERAL DIRECTOR

August 29, 1956

Dr, Joshua Lederberg
The University of Wisconsin
Madison 6, Wisconsin

Dear Dr, Lederberg:

I thank you for the reprints, As you guessed, I was
especially interested in your observations with protoplasts.
In fact, Dr. John T. Sharp has started some work here to connect
them with the L forms. Most observations with protoplasts have
been made with bacteria from which L forma could not be isolated
thusfar., Only a few strains of colon bacillus produce L forms
and they produce only a few colonies. It is possible that the
L forms are nothing else but protoplasts which are able to multiply
in our media, On the other hand, the formation of large bodies as
is visible in certain cases is a result of a reproductive process
and not only the result of the elimination of cell wall. Typhi-
murium exposed to penicillin broth grows to large bodies, These
ag you observed are destroyed by distilled water, and transplanted
to fresh media without penicillin return often to the bacterial
form, Survival without a rigid cell wall is common to the protoplasts
and the L form, Whether the presence or absence of multiplication
in this form is only accidental depending on the environment or
whether it indicates an essential difference remains questionable,

Dr, Sharp will be in Madison for the Electron Microscope
Meetings from September 9 - 12 or 13, He will bring the cultures
with him from here and would like to have a talk with you concerning
the protoplasts in which he is greatly interested. He will be free
Sunday evening when he arrives or on Wednesday afternoon (Sept 12)
or Thursday forenoon. I hope you will find time to see him, He

asked me to send the enclosed manuscript which we hope to publish
soon,

With kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

Tous OL ONS

Louis Dienes, M.D,