QUANTITATIVE ASPECTS OF PENICILLIN ACTION ON ESCHERICHIA COLI IN HYPERTONIC MEDIUM

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Abstract
When penicillin acts upon growing cultures of a strain of E. coli which does not produce penicillinase in culture media containing sucrose (to increase the osmotic pressure) and magnesium ions, a proportion of cells in the inoculum become spherical and these spheres burst when placed in a medium of normal osmotic pressure; this is due to an induced defect in the rigid component of the cell wall. Many cells resist this change, and experiments lead to the suggestion that only those members of the inoculum which can divide become spheroplasts, and that the survivors do not differ genetically from the remainder of the population in their resistance or susceptibility to penicillin action. A further portion of the inoculum cannot be accounted for as spheroplasts or survivors and appear to be killed by a method as yet undetermined.

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