LYSIS-FROM-WITHOUT OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS STRAINS BY COMBINATIONS OF SPECIFIC PHAGES AND PHAGE-INDUCED LYTIC ENZYMES

Abstract

Ralston, Doris J. (University of California, Berkeley) and Mary McIvor . Lysis-from-without of Staphylococcus aureus strains by combinations of specific phages and phage-induced lytic enzymes. J. Bacteriol. 88: 676–681. 1964—Several typing phages, adsorbed in sufficient concentrations to their homologous propagating strains, altered the cell surface so as to render the cells sensitive to rapid and synergistic lysis by extra-cellular additions of wall lysins. Lysis was effected both by lysins induced by the individual phages and by phage K 1 virolysin. Phage K 1 also rendered cells sensitive to the lysins of the typing phages. With the exception of lysins from PS 53, 70, and 77, none of the lysins nor purified phages tested separately caused significant lysis of living cells. Lysis-from-without in Staphylococcus aureus appears to be a stepwise process: sensitization by phage followed by digestion of the wall by lysin.