Open AccessSpherical and rod shaped protoplasts from β‐lactam antibiotic treated cultures of Bacillus subtilis
Author(s) -
Wright G.,
Rogers H.J.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1988.tb03143.x
Subject(s) - bacillus subtilis , antibiotics , microbiology and biotechnology , lactam , bacillales , protoplast , bacteria , bacillaceae , chemistry , biology , stereochemistry , genetics , biochemistry
Addition of β‐lactams to exponentially growing cultures of an autolytically deficient Bacillus subtilis met c3 lyt ‐2 strain FJ6 caused increase in optical density to stop after 1 h when it had about doubled, and thereafter to remain constant for at least 6 h. The number of protoplasts to be derived per unit dry weight of bacteria started to fall when the antibiotic was added and after 1 h had reached 50% of the initial value. Also during the first hour but after a lag of 20–30 min an increasing number of membrane bound rod shaped protoplasts were seen among the normal spherical ones. These swelled to spheres and ultimately burst if the concentration of sucrose in the suspending fluid was gradually reduced. These results would be best explained by rapid inhibition of initiation of cell division followed by membrane damage to an increasing proportion of cells.