TABLE I. Biological properties of Corynebacterium diphtheriaestrains used in this study.
| Strain | Origin | Biovar/ sucrose fermentation | tox genea | tehA | K2TeO3 MIC (mg/mL-1) | K2TeO3inhibition halo (mm) | BATH (%) | Glass/ polystyrene adherence | HEp-2 cells adherence pattern | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDCIC-L1 | CDC-E8392::pCR2.1-TOPO’CDC-E8392_813’’ | mitis/suc - | + | Interrupted | 0.31 | 27 ± 0.41b | 51 ± 0.82 | - /++ | DA | This paper |
| CDC-E8392 | Diphtheria/pharynx (USA) | mitis/suc - | + | + | 0.62 | 23 ± 1.15 | 51 ± 1.20 | - /++ | DA | Mattos-Guaraldi et al. (1999), Hirata Jr et al. (2002, 2004), Moreira et al. (2003),Gomes et al. (2009) |
a: toxicity evaluated by polymerase chain reaction for tox gene (Pimenta et al. 2008); b: p < 0.05 according to unpaired t test; BATH: bacterial adherence to n-hexadecane; CDC: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; DA: diffuse adherence [characterised by bacteria randomly distributed over the surfaces of the human epithelial type 2 (HEp-2) cells]; K2TeO3: potassium tellurite; MIC: minimal inhibitory concentration; -: negative; +: positive; ++: moderately adherent to glass or polystyrene.