plate wells with 1 ml of fixing buffer (sodium cacodylate with
2.5 wt% glutaraldehyde and 0.1 M sucrose) and incubated at
37 C for 1.5 h. Then, the fixed cells were dehydrated in a
graded methanol series. Samples were then air dried, mounted
on SEM stubs, and sputtered with gold for 5 min creating a
20 nm gold layer to allow SEM observation.