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. 1995 Jun;33(6):1584–1587. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.6.1584-1587.1995

Analysis of enzymatic activities for differentiation of two species of nutritionally variant streptococci, Streptococcus defectivus and Streptococcus adjacens.

D Beighton 1, K A Homer 1, A Bouvet 1, A R Storey 1
PMCID: PMC228220  PMID: 7650191

Abstract

Strains of nutritionally variant streptococci, Streptococcus defectivus (n = 10) and Streptococcus adjacens (n = 20), were studied for the production of glycosidic and proteolytic enzyme activities. S. defectivus strains produced neuraminidase and alpha-fucosidase, while S. adjacens strains produced only neuraminidase. The S. adjacens strains produced a very wide range of proteolytic activities with the ability to hydrolyze the majority of aminopeptidase substrates tested, while S. defectivus strains hydrolyzed only a minority of aminopeptidase substrates. These data provide additional phenotypic characteristics which may be useful in distinguishing between these two species and suggest that they may have different nutritional requirements.

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Selected References

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