A new approach to the study of the E. coli nucleoid.

E. coli were examined by the freeze-fracture thaw-fix technique, embedded in thin fibrin gels. After glutaraldehyde fixation the bacterial nucleoid was found spread out over the surrounding fibrin. Addition of calcium and uranyl acetate to the fixative preserved the nucleoid in compact form. The spread nucleoid was then examined against a smooth mica background after freeze-thaw and osmotic lysis. These spreads were critical-point dried, rotary shadowed with platinum-carbon and viewed as stereo-pair micrographs. Structures seen are tentatively interpreted as clusters of polyribosomes, extended DNA, and supercoiled DNA complexed with proteins or polyamines. After osmotic lysis, glutaraldehyde alone preserves the nucleoid in compact form. Only where strands are broken, in freeze-fracture or freeze-thaw lysis, must uranyl acetate be added to the fixative to preserve a compact structure.