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. 1968 Jun;95(6):2070–2077. doi: 10.1128/jb.95.6.2070-2077.1968

Experimental Infection with Parent and L-Phase Variants of Neisseria meningitidis

Marjorie Bohnhoff a, Malcolm I Page a,1
PMCID: PMC315136  PMID: 4970223

Abstract

Thirty-six strains of Neisseria meningitidis, including groups A, B, and C, produced L forms in vitro in the presence of an osmotic stabilizer and high concentrations of horse serum using penicillin as the transforming agent. Transformation to L growth occurred most readily among strains recently isolated from patients, and an unusually high rate of transformation was observed in 7 of the 36 strains. Revertant L strains developed diplococcal colonies on blood-agar and L colonies on sucrose-serum-penicillin-agar—always in a ratio of approximately 10 to 100 diplococcal colonies to 1 L colony. Using mucin as a host depressant, comparison was made between parent and revertant L strains of their initial pathogenicity and development of virulence by serial mouse passage. In general, revertant L strains showed the same pathogenic characteristics as the parent. Heart blood cultures from mice dying of infection with revertant L strains retained their ability to grow as L forms on penicillin media. Three stable L strains were completely avirulent for mice, although persistence of L forms could be demonstrated in peritoneal exudate for 6 days after inoculation.

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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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