The hydrophilic fragment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) E2 protein was expressed in Escherichia coli as a chimera, bound to the choline-binding domain (C-Lyt) of the major autolysin of Streptococcus pneumoniae. The C-LytE2 chimera was purified by affinity chromatography using DEAE-Sepharose. The purified antigen was used to immunize rabbits and the specific humoral immune response to E2 protein was...

The gene encoding the major autolysin of Staphylococcus aureus 8325/4 has been cloned, sequenced, and insertionally inactivated. The three-domain, 137,384-Da protein has a C-terminal glucosaminidase active site and is involved in cell separation, generalized cell lysis, and release of wall material at the cell surface. Expression occurs throughout growth and is stimulated by low temperatures an...

We have analyzed genetically three clinical isolates (3180, 3870, and 1244) of Streptococcus pneumoniae with high-level ciprofloxacin resistance. Isolates 3180 and 3870 were atypical because of their insolubility in deoxycholate. However, they hybridized specifically with pneumococcal autolysin and pneumolysin gene probes and have typical pneumococcal atpC and atpA gene sequences. Analysis of t...

A low-molecular-mass protein from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) is responsible for the regulation of formaldehyde dehydrogenase activity in vitro S. Tate and H. Dalton Partial characterization of a major autolysin from Mycobacterium phlei 2. S. Li, T. 1. Beveridge, J. Betts and A. 1. Clarke Oxidation of medium-chain acyl-CoA esters by extracts of Aspergillus niger: enzymology and characteriza...

The Bacillus subtilis cell wall binding protein, CwbA, stimulated the cell wall lytic activities of the B. subtilis and B. licheniformis autolysins (CwlA and CwlM, respectively) in addition to that of the major B. subtilis autolysin (CwlB). Even though the substrate for the enzyme reaction was changed from B. subtilis cell wall containing a teichoic acid to Micrococcus luteus cell wall containi...

In the presence of penicillin, suspensions of staphylococci tend to increase greatly in density for a few hours and then undergo rapid clearing. The increase in density has been shown to be due chiefly to swelling rather than multiplication, and the rapid clearing is caused by lysis of the organisms (Chain and Duthie, 1945). This phenomenon has been observed with visual methods of comparing the...

The influence of the antibiotic linezolid on the secretion of exotoxins by Staphylococcus aureus was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry and Western blot analysis. S. aureus suspensions were treated with grading subinhibitory concentrations of linezolid (12.5, 25, 50, and...