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. 1990 Oct;34(10):1901–1907. doi: 10.1128/aac.34.10.1901

Correlation of penicillin-induced lysis of Enterococcus faecium with saturation of essential penicillin-binding proteins and release of lipoteichoic acid.

S al-Obeid 1, L Gutmann 1, R Williamson 1
PMCID: PMC171962  PMID: 2291656

Abstract

Clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium that had a range of susceptibilities to penicillin were found to differ significantly in their responses to the antibiotic. In the penicillin-susceptible group (MIC, less than or equal to 4 micrograms/ml), the cessation of growth (bacteriostasis) at 10 x the MIC of penicillin appeared to correlate with the inhibition of penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 5*, whereas the onset of lysis (bactericidal effect) at higher antibiotic concentrations (100 x the MIC) was concomitant with the inhibition of the lower-affinity PBP 5. In contrast, in the resistant (MIC, greater than or equal to 8 micrograms/ml) group (in which most of the strains did not contain PBP 5*), the degree of saturation of PBP 5 seemed to determine the physiological response to the antibiotic: low levels of saturation caused growth inhibition, whereas almost complete saturation correlated with lysis. The penicillin-induced cell lysis of both penicillin-susceptible and -resistant strains was attributed, at least in part, to the extensive loss of acylated lipoteichoic acid into the growth medium.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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