Isolation and characterization of a Tn551-autolysis mutant of Staphylococcus aureus. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • A Lyt- mutant with reduced autolytic activity was isolated after Tn551 mutagenesis of the methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus laboratory strain RN450. The Lyt- phenotype could be transferred back into the parent and into a variety of other S. aureus strains by transduction of the transposon marker. Southern analysis has located the Tn551 insert to a 3.2-kb HindIII DNA fragment on the SmaI B fragment of the staphylococcal chromosome. The Lyt- phenotype included reduced rates of cell wall turnover and autolysis induced by detergent or methicillin treatment; however, the rate of methicillin-induced killing was not affected. Peptidoglycans prepared from the parental and mutant cells showed identical muropeptide compositions, as resolved by a high-resolution high-pressure liquid chromatography technique. On the other hand, LiCl extracts of the mutant cells contained reduced amounts of total protein and lower specific cell wall-degrading activity compared with those of extracts of parental cells. The profile of bacteriolytic enzymes as detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed multiple band differences between mutant and parental cells; a major lytic band with properties characteristic of the staphylococcal endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase was completely absent from the Lyt- cells. The Lyt- phenotype transduced into a series of methicillin-resistant strains of both homogeneous and heterogeneous phenotypes caused only a modest decrease in the level of methicillin resistance, as determined by population analysis.

publication date

  • August 1, 1992

Research

keywords

  • Bacteriolysis
  • DNA Transposable Elements
  • Staphylococcus aureus

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC206308

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0026755338

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1128/jb.174.15.4952-4959.1992

PubMed ID

  • 1321119

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 174

issue

  • 15