Comparative analysis of a biofilm-forming Staphylococcus epidermidis strain and its adhesion-positive, accumulation-negative mutant M7.
We have isolated a stable slime-negative mutant, M7, from the wild-type Staphylococcus epidermidis RP62A by mitomycin mutagenesis. Besides its inability to produce slime in the test tube this mutant differed also in two other properties from its parent strain: it lacked the ability to accumulate on a surface, and it did not produce a 115 kDa and a 18 kDa extracellular protein. In all other tested properties such as initial adherence, growth rate, cell-wall composition, surface characteristics, DNA restriction profile, the presence of a 29 kb antibiotic resistance plasmid, and antimicrobial susceptibility profile, M7 was indistinguishable from its wild-type. The mutant is an important basis for further study of the pathogenesis of polymer-associated S. epidermidis infections.
Schumacher-Perdreau
F
F
Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Universität zu Köln, FRG.
Heilmann
C
C
Peters
G
G
Götz
F
F
Pulverer
G
G
D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000209:etiology; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001704:Biopolymers