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Summary: Magnesium is essential for the normal cell division of bacilli in complex media. Under conditions of magnesium deficiency or magnesium excess, cell division is inhibited and filamentous cells may be formed. Under the same conditions there is no appreciable interference with the division of chromatinic bodies. The magnesium requirements of the Gram-positive bacteria are considerably greater than those of the Gram-negative bacteria, possibly because the former incorporate magnesium into the structure of the Gram complex.
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Michael Webb (1949) studied this question.
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