Kinetics of Diphtheria Toxin Formation

Abstract
Studies on the kinetics of diphtheria toxin formation in iron-free culture media by variants of the PW no. 8 strain of Coryne-bacterium diphtheriae labelled with 14c -phenylalanine or 35S-methionine showed that the toxin protein was synthesized de novo from amino acids by growing organisms. Release of toxin into the extracellular medium occurred without lysis of more than a minor proportion of the bacterial population.