Zeitschrift fur allgemeine Mikrobiologie最新文献

Plasmid-mediated resistance to erythromycin and chloramphenicol was successfully transferred from group A, B and H streptococci to group N streptococci by a process akin to conjugation. The results showed that plasmids from streptococcal groups other than N were able to replicate in lactic streptococci as well. The transfer experiments were carried out by using a membrane filter mating technique. Four of the five plasmids used (pSM15346, pSM10419, pIP501, and pEL1) were transferred at frequencies ranging from 10(-1) to 10(-8) transconjugants per donor colony-forming unit. The highest transfer frequencies were obtained when S. pyogenes strain 15346 (pSM15346) served as the donor strain. The identy of transconjugants was verified by testing for the presence of unselected markers of the recipient strains, and both transduction and transformation were ruled out as the mechanisms of transfer.

The antibiotic yields of industrial selectants must be checked at several steps of cultivation. Here the question arises whether the activities at the different levels of cultivation are correlated. The common coefficient of correlation cannot be used because repeated determinations of the yield at one selectant result in different values. In order to have only one fixed value per selectant we define the mean value around which the observed values are varying. But these mean values cannot be observed. Thus, an adequate method of correlation similar to that in Guiard and Herrendörfer (1977) was used. The method is demonstrated in two examples: With selectants of Streptomyces noursei for streptothricin titers in 20 ml- and 20 l-cultures as well as with selectants of Penicillium chrysogenum for potency indices in surface cultures and penicillin titers in 50 ml submerged cultures, respectively. In both cases the coefficients of correlation were above 0.7.

The kinetics of growth, extracellular alpha-amylase formation and pool sizes of guanosine polyphosphates (p)ppGpp and adenosine phosphates (ATP and AMP) were determined during discontinuous cultivation of Bacillus subtilis 44. The results indicate a positive involvement of (p)ppGpp in the regulation of the expression of the alpha-amylase gene.

Phage SLE111 infecting Streptomyces levoris 1331 was morphological different from most actinophages described and yielded very high titres (10(11) p.f.u/ml) after lytic growth. Typical morphological changes of infected hyphae were observed by phase contrast and electron microscopy of ultrathin sections. The double-stranded, linear DNA (44.2 +/- 1.3 kb) was characterized, according to electron microscopic analysis, by absence of cohesive ends, of terminal redundance, and circular permutation. A stem-loop structure containing inverted repeats of about 200 bp was identified by electron microscopy in two alternative positions in the SLE111 genome.

A new method has been developed for the selection of antibiotic-resistant clones after transformation of Streptomyces protoplasts with plasmid DNA. This method is based on establishing a spatial concentration gradient for the antibiotic, the resistance to which is encoded by the transforming plasmid. By this method, the resistance development of regenerating protoplasts can be followed. The results suggest that antibiotic resistance is inducible. In addition, we were able to show that resident plasmids incompatible with the incoming ones are eliminated when this direct selection principle is used. Moreover, this method, which may facilitate the application of gene technology in Streptomyces, works even though the transformation procedure gives variable results.

Heat-activated spores of Bacillus subtilis synthesize during the early outgrowth special proteins which are absent from vegetative cells (Hecker 1983). Some of these outgrowth-specific proteins may be synthesized in response to heat activation of spores. In vegetative cells of B. subtilis synthesis of several proteins is markedly induced when temperature is shifted up from 30 to 44 degrees C. None of these putative heat shock proteins is synthesized during early outgrowth of heat-activated spores at 30 degrees C.

From experimental data of kinetics of growth, glucose consumption and product formation of Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola the development and parameter estimation of a mathematical model is presented. The model describes the behaviour of both, batch and chemostat culture, as well as for different temperatures. The model is favoured for dynamic optimization studies. Maximal productivity is reached in the chemostat for a dilution rate which is only a little bit smaller than the wash out point.

Protein patterns of conidia produced by a Streptomyces griseus strain in submerged cultures and on solid media were compared. Cell-free extracts (30 000 X g supernatant) were prepared and analyzed on gradient SDS polyacrylamide gels. The protein patterns of both kinds of conidia were found to be practically identical, and they differed from protein patterns of the old vegetative hyphae in a characteristic way.

Mycelial levels of ATP and glucose-6-phosphate were investigated in mutants of streptothricin-producing S. noursei JA 3880b differing from the wild-type strain in antibiotic formation, in the control by inorganic phosphate of the secondary metabolism, and in the resistance to growth inhibition by toxic arsenate ions. As compared with the ancestral strain, mutants exhibited a lower content of ATP in the mycelium while addition of 0.1 M arsenate to growing cultures provoked only moderate changes in the level of this high-energy metabolite. The results suggest that there exists a correlation between growth resistance to arsenate and insensitivity to phosphate inhibition of the secondary metabolism, on the one hand, and the capacity to produce streptothricin-type antibiotics, on the other.

L-Tryptophan did not exert any influence on peptide alkaloid formation in an ergotamine and in an ergosine-accumulating C. purpurea strain. A different picture was observed in a series of related C. purpurea strains. Tryptophan showed a slight stimulatory effect on the ergotoxine producer Pepty 695/S. A blocked mutant of it, designated as Pepty 695/ch which was able to accumulate secoclavines gave similar results. In a high-yielding elymoclavine strain Pepty 695/e, the progeny of the former one, tryptophan up to a concentration of 25 mM stimulated remarkably clavine biosynthesis. Furthermore, tryptophan could overcome the block of synthesis by inorganic phosphate. Increased specific activities of chanoclavine cyclase but not DMAT synthetase were observed in cultures of strain Pepty 695/e supplemented with tryptophan. 5-Methyltryptophan and bioisosteres of tryptophan were ineffective in alkaloid stimulation. These results are compared with those obtained with the grass ergot strain SD 58 and discussed with the relation to other induction phenomena.