Biological Properties of α-Toxin Mutants of Staphylococcus aureus

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Abstract
McClatchy , J. K. (The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas), and E. D. Rosenblum . Biological properties of α-toxin mutants of Staphylococcus aureus . J. Bacteriol. 92: 575–579. 1966.—Twenty nonhemolytic mutants of Staphylococcus aureus were isolated after treatment of a hemolytic strain with ultraviolet light or nitrous acid. Thirteen strains isolated were completely lacking in the synthesis of α toxin or immunologically related proteins, presumably the result of a single mutational event. Although the strains were nonhemolytic on rabbit blood-agar plates, six of them retained the dermonecrotic and lethal activities usually associated with staphylococcal α toxin, as well as slight hemolytic activity for rabbit erythrocyte suspensions. The active mutants and one inactive mutant produced a protein that reacted immunologically with antibody to α toxin. Mutations which alter the α toxin molecule can effect the lethal, dermonecrotic, and hemolytic activities separately or in varying ratios.