Saturday, April 24, 2010

In bacteria, what is a psuedospamodulating leaflet?

It refrences with Legionella. (If you don't know, don't answer. This word is weird enough on its own.)

In bacteria, what is a psuedospamodulating leaflet?
Legionella pneumophila is a thin, pleomorphic, flagellated Gram-negative bacterium of the genus Legionella. L. pneumophila is the primary human pathogen in this group and is the causative agent of legionellosis or Legionnaires' disease.





While L. pneumophila is categorized as a Gram-negative organism, it stains poorly due to its unique lipopolysaccharide-content in the outer psuedospamodulating leaflet of the outer cell membrane. On the side-chains of the cell wall are carried the bases for the somatic antigen specificity of these organisms. The chemical composition of these side chains both with respect to components as well as arrangement of the different sugars determines the nature of the somatic or O-antigen determinants, which are important means of serologically classifying many Gram-negative bacteria. At least 35 different serovars of L. pneumophila have been described as well as several other species being subdivided into a number of serovars.


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