Recently, it was shown that a cellulose-negative mutant (Cell) ofAcetobacterxylinum ATCC 23769 carried an insertion of an indigenous transposable element (IS1031A) about 500 bp upstream of the bcs operon, required for cellulose synthesis. Here we show that Cell can be complemented by wild-type DNA covering the insertion point. Nucleotide sequencing of this region revealed the presence of two op...

Films and tubes manufactured from cellulose have historically been used in the treatment of renal failure, but their use for this purpose has declined in recent years in favour of films manufactured from synthetic material blends. As the clinical application of cellulose for dialysis declines, new applications for its use are emerging, of which the most promising appears to be the use of microb...

Appearance of cellulose microfibrils in the medium of a suspension of cells of Acetobacter xylinum in buffered glucose solution was preceded by a stage during which the cellulose in the medium was amorphous within the available resolution. The size of the vertical axis of the microfibrils of the bacterial cellulose was found on the basis of measurement of shadow length to be only about 16 A. In...