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. 1978 Aug;14(2):218–223. doi: 10.1128/aac.14.2.218

Effect of a Staphylococcin on Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Dorothy M Morriss 1, John W Lawson 1, Marvin Rogolsky 1
PMCID: PMC352436  PMID: 100049

Abstract

Phage group 2 staphylococcal strain UT0002 contains a large 56S virulence plasmid with genes that code for both exfoliative toxin and a specific staphylococcin termed Bac R1. Four penicillinase-producing strains and three penicillin-susceptible strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae were killed by Bac R1. After 30 min of growth of the penicillin-resistant TR1 strain in 62.5 arbitrary units of Bac R1 per ml, loss of viability was approximately 90%, and, after 5 h, an approximately 99.99% loss of viability was observed. Lysis did not accompany cell death, and 84% of the Bac R1 added to the growth medium was adsorbed to the gonococcal cells. The extracellular supernatant fluid from a substrain of staphylococcal strain UT0002 cured of the plasmid for Bac R1 production had no lethal effect on the gonococcal strains. Bac R1 was also shown to have bactericidal activity against an L-form of N. meningitidis, indicating that the outer envelope of a neisserial cell is not needed for bacteriocin activity. Ten different normal human sera were unable to neutralize Bac R1 activity. The bacteriocin lacks adsorption specificity. It binds to but does not kill Escherichia coli cells, indicating that the cell envelope of gram-negative organisms can provide protection against the staphylococcin.

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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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