Antibiotic-tolerant mutants of Streptococcus pneumoniae that are not deficient in autolytic activity. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Several mutants of Streptococcus pneumoniae were isolated that appeared tolerant, to varying extents, to the lytic and bactericidal effects of some antibiotics that inhibit peptidoglycan synthesis, but were not deficient in autolytic activity. The method used to select the mutants was based on the survival of tolerant mutants during treatment with either bacitracin, benzylpenicillin, D-cycloserine plus beta-chloro-D-alanine, or vancomycin. Most (60 to 80%) of the surviving isolates were found to be deficient in autolytic activity, and these were rejected. The smaller proportion that had wild-type sensitivity to deoxycholate-induced lysis was studied further with respect to tolerance to the other antibiotics used in the selection procedures. Two of these mutants (selected by treatment with benzylpenicillin) were tolerant to either benzylpenicillin or D-cycloserine plus beta-chloro-D-alanine, but were supersusceptible, in terms of initiation of lysis, to either bacitracin or vancomycin. The minimal inhibitory concentration values of several antibiotics for these two mutants were identical to those for the wild-type strain. Moreover, the interaction of radioactive benzylpenicillin with the penicillin-binding proteins, examined in whole organisms, also appeared the same as previously found for either wild-type or autolytic-deficient strains of S. pneumoniae.

publication date

  • October 1, 1980

Research

keywords

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Bacteriolysis
  • Streptococcus pneumoniae

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC294599

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0019214958

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1128/jb.144.1.105-113.1980

PubMed ID

  • 6903187

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 144

issue

  • 1