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Abstract
The cell walls of Clostridium sordellii and Cl. bifermentans agreed in their amino acid and amino sugar pattern, but differed strikingly in their mono- saccharide patterns. Sixteen Cl. sordellii strains contained only glucose as monosaccharide in their cell walls, whilst in Cl. bifermentans three sugars were found: in 13 strains glucose, mannose and rhamnose and in the 3 others glucose, galactose and rhamnose. The sugar pattern in formamide extracts of cells is sufficient for diagnostic purposes.
Out of 16 Cl. sordellii strains 14 are ureolytic—the remaining two (one of which is pathogenic) are not. These strains are probably mutants that have lost a postulated transport mechanism for urea. Cell-free extracts of both Cl. sordellii and Cl. bifermentans possessed urease activity. Possibly Cl. bifermentans never possessed the postulated urease transport mechanism und is therefore not ureolytic.
Antigenic heterogeneity of Cl. sordellii and Cl. bifermentans strains, as determined by agglutination tests, could not be explained by the results of simple cell-wall analysis.
The physiology of Cl. sordellii and Cl. bifermentans cell walls is similar in many respects. The autolytic properties are particularly striking; autolysis could be prevented by heating. Heated cells (60 min. at 60°C, 20 min. at 100° or 120°C) are extremely sensitive to trypsin. The optical densities of suspensions of isolated cell walls of both organisms, whether heated or not, decreased rapidly in the presence of trypsin.
Although there are many similarities between Cl. sordellii and CL bifermentans, they are better regarded as separate species; the monosaccharide pattern in their cell walls seems sufficient to distinguish them.
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