THE BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HYDROGEN TRANSFER CAPACITY OF MURINE LEPROSY BACILLI

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Abstract
The effect of the physiological environment and of various types of damage on the H transfer capacity of Mycobacterium lepraemurium and M. phlei were studied. The residual H transfer capacity of M. lepraemurium suspensions was compared with previous data on infectivity, while that of M. phlei was compared with plate counts. Both the infectivity and the H transfer capacity of M. lepraemurium declined rapidly during incubation. The rapid decline of H transfer capacity in M. phlei was due to depletion of substrate rather than to a corresponding loss in viability. The more persistent H transfer capacity of M. lepraemurium suggests that these bacilli may survive more successfully than M. phlei under these circumstances. These data indicate that in incubated suspensions of M. lepraemurium there is a distinction between viability on the one hand and infectivity and H transfer capacity on the other. On the basis of the relations between the plate counts and the H transfer capacity of M. phlei suspensions, it was concluded tentatively that the H transfer capacity of incubated suspensions (of M. lepraemurium) is an indication of the relative levels of viability which exist among aliquots of a given suspension.