Isolation and characterization of a mutant of Staphylococcus aureus deficient in autolytic activity.

A mutant of Staphylococcus aureus H (RUS3) uas isolated after mutagenesis with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. The rate of autolysis of whole cells and isolated cell walls of RUS3 was less than 10% of the parent strain. In addition, the ability of the crude soluble enzyme isolated from RUS3 to degrade cell walls was negligible compared with the parent strain. The cell wall composition and the generation time of RUS3 were comparable to the parent strain. Unlike S. aureus H, RUS3 grew in clumps and did not undergo cell wall turnover. Both strains exhibited identical kinetics of killing by penicillin G. This may indicate that autolytic enzymes play a role in cell wall turnover and cell separation, but in S. aureus most of the autolytic activity is unrelated to the lethal effect of cell wall antibiotics.