Deoxyribonucleic acid base composition in the taxonomy of Staphylococcus.

Twenty-four strains of Staphylococcus aureus, including eight known mutants of S. aureus and strains growing under a variety of environmental conditions or exposed to a number of physical and chemical agents, maintained a remarkably narrow range of guanine plus cytosine (GC) content (32.4 to 35.1%). The wide range of GC content (30.7 to 40%) reported in the literature was due to the variety of methods and calculations used rather than to any substantial variation in base composition. The UV-2 "mutant" (ATCC 13680) with a GC content of 67.6% reported to be derived from S. aureus (ATCC 13679) was a species of Corynebacterium. The data presented were consistent with the concept that base composition changes only to a very slight degree by mutation.