Transformability of Group H Streptococcus Challis

From a wild type strain Challis of the group H streptococcus, greening (Challis α) and β‐hemolytic (Challis β) colonies were isolated on horse blood agar. Both colonies formed greening on sheep blood agar, and no significant differences were found in their biological, serological and chemical analyses. They, however, showed clear differences on the transformability. Transformability, the producibility of competence‐provoking factor (CPF) and competency which have been reported on the Challis strain were all found in Challis β strain. On the other hand, Challis α strain did not produce antibiotic‐resistant transformants with the addition of CPF, and could not produce CPF even when the cells were cultured under various conditions of incubation or treated with lysozyme or detergents. The transformabilities of antibiotic‐resistant mutants obtained from the Challis β strain were lower than those of the original Challis β strain, as pointed out by other investigators, while the Challis α strain became transformable on antibiotic resistance only when it acquired streptomycin resistance. In the Challis β strain and the antibiotic‐resistant mutants of Challis α strain, the separate markers of streptomycin, penicillin, tetracycline, mitomycin C, as well as the combinations of these markers were found to be transformed at the highest rate in the strains having transformation of streptomycin resistance. The findings are discussed with respect to incorporation of deoxyribonucleic acid into recipient cells and to the reports of other workers.