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. 1971 Jul;4(1):73–78. doi: 10.1128/iai.4.1.73-78.1971

Light and Scanning-Beam Electron Microscopy of Wall-Defective Staphylococcus aureus Induced by Lysostaphin 1

Chatrchai Watanakunakorn 1,2, Robert J Fass 1,2, Albert S Klainer 1,2, Morton Hamburger 1,2,2
PMCID: PMC416266  PMID: 4949481

Abstract

The serial morphological changes of Staphylococcus aureus after exposure to lysostaphin (one unit per ml) in hypertonic culture medium containing 5% NaCl were studied over an 8-hr period at 37 C. S. aureus stained gram-negative almost instantaneously upon contact with lysostaphin. Many cells were lysed, but wall-defective staphylococci with corrugated surface were detected as early as 5 min by use of scanning-beam electron microscopy. Wall-defective staphylococci enlarged progressively with increasing periods of incubation. The absorbance of the lysostaphin-treated culture decreased significantly by 2 min, remained stationary for 2 hr, and then progressively increased. The number of vegetative colony-forming units decreased progressively with increasing periods of incubation, whereas the number of L-colony-forming units remained the same.

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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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