A single structural type in the regular surface layer of Aeromonas salmonicida

The surface protein array of Aeromonas salmonicida (or A-layer) appears, in negatively stained preparations, as two distinct patterns, type I and type II. Type I patterns were restricted to, and predominated in, darkly stained areas, whereas lighter staining regions exclusively displayed type II patterns. The type I morphology was faithfully reproduced in computer-simulated superimpositions of type II patterns, as was the intermediate transition zone frequently seen between the two patterns. Variations in the lattice constant of both patterns, presumably due to artifactual flattening, demonstrated that these patterns could not be distinguished on this basis. The conceptual model presented points to the type II pattern as the only single A-layer structural type. We propose the use of the terms type 1/type II to exclusively describe the morphological patterns that appear upon negative staining and the open/closed nomenclature to describe the conformations that a single structural type can adopt.