Studies on the gonococcus: I. Constituents of the cell.

Progress in biochemical research on the gonococcus has not kept pace with that on other pathogenic microorganisms of similar importance. Reasons for this are twofold: gonococcal infection comparable to that in man cannot be reproduced experimentally in animals and the organism is difficult to grow in sufficient quantities to permit chemical study. For the latter reason, few of the cellular constituents of the gonococcus have been characterized. Warden (1915) has reported the presence of lipid of high complexity. Boor and Miller (1934) described the immunologic properties of a "nucleoprotein" fraction of the gonococcus as well as those of a group-specific carbohydrate (Miller and Boor, 1934). Casper (1937), on the other hand, claimed the isolation of type-specific carbohydrates from agar cultures of recently isolated strains. No quantitative chemical studies, however, have been carried out. Microanalytical methods are now available which permit the accurate determination of a number of cellular constituents. Employing such methods, analyses have been made on mass cultures of 6 strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae grown for 3, 6, and 10 days in broth media. Observations at these different intervals made it possible to determine the change in the amounts of cellular constituents throughout the life of the cell. Analytical data are presented on two nucleoprotein fractions which have been isolated and described. In addition, the lipid has been separated into a number of crystalline and non-crystalline fractions, several of which have been analyzed and identified.