Abstract
IT was observed that in young broth cultures, Streptococcus faecalis (enterococcus) grows in marked chains which later break up rather abruptly; the chains can be maintained by spinning young cultures and resuspending the cells in fresh medium. It was further found that many unrelated compounds are capable to a greater or lesser degree of inducing chain formation in enterococci, the most active being detergents, suramin and crystal and gentian violet; bile1 was moderately active. In the presence of these compounds enterococci grow rough, with a clear supernatant and a heavy granular deposit consisting of long, tangled chains. On transfer to ordinary media the organisms revert to the typical, smooth, diffuse type of growth with little sediment—singles, pairs and short chains predominating.
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References
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LOMINSKI, I., CAMERON, J. & WYLLIE, G. Chaining and Unchaining Streptococcus faecalis—a Hypothesis of the Mechanism of Bacterial Cell Separation. Nature 181, 1477 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1811477a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1811477a0
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