PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C E Lankford

Publications and source records attributed to C E Lankford.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Bacteriostatic enterochelin-specific immunoglobulin from normal human serum.

Heat-inactivated normal human serum produces iron-reversible bacteriostasis of a number of microorganisms. This inhibitory effect was abolished by adsorption of serum with ultraviolet-killed cells of species that produce the siderophore enterochelin. Bacteriostasis also was alleviated by adsorption of serum with 2,3-dihydroxy-N-benzoyl-L-serine, a degradation product of enterochelin, bound to the insoluble matrix AH-Sepharose 4B. The adsorption process did not add iron or enterochelin to serum, nor did it remove transferrin. The immunoglobulin fraction from normal human serum was isolated; when added to a defined medium (M199) prepared so as to mimic normal human serum, the immunoglobulin rendered the medium inhibitory to an enterochelin-defective strain of Salmonella typhimurium. Adsorption of this medium with AH-Sepharose 4B-2,3-dihydroxy-N-benzoyl-L-serine removed the inhibition. Our results indicate that enterochelin-specific immunoglobulins exist in normal human serum. These immunoglobulins may act synergistically with transferrin to effect bacteriostasis of enterochelin-producing pathogens.

Adsorption↗

Enterochelin (enterobactin): virulence factor for Salmonella typhimurium.

The ability of Salmonella typhimurium to synthesize enterochelin (enterobactin; ENT) affects its capacity to grow both in vivo and in vitro. An ENT mutant (96-1), blocked in the conversion of chorismate to 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate, was derived from SR-11, a strain of high mouse virulence. This mutant was unchanged in the other characteristics tested: colonial, biochemical, antigenic, and cellular. In contrast to SR-11, growth of this mutant in complement-inactivated human serum was strongly inhibited. However, addition of 5 muM ENT to the cultures relieved their inhibition. Viable counts of bacteria injected into the mouse peritoneal cavity showed that without ENT, growth of 96-1 was inhibited markedly; with ENT, the apparent growth rate of 96-1 exceeded that of SR-11. The 50% lethal dose (LD50) of 96-1 was 2 to 3 log units higher than that of SR-11. When ENT was injected, the ENT- mutant exhibited an ENT-dose-related decrease in its LD50. A single injection of 300 micrograms of ENT per mouse with the inoculum reduced the LD50 of 96-1 to that of the wild-type strain. These findings support the contention that ENT is a virulence factor for S. typhimurium.

Ascitic Fluid↗

Iron-chelating hydroxamic acid (schizokinen) active in initiation of cell division in Bacillus megaterium.

Bacillus megaterium ATCC 19213 secretes a cell division-initiating "schizokinen" (SK) which accumulates during its culture cycle to a concentration inversely proportional to the iron added to a sucrose-mineral salts medium. Secreted SK was purified from culture filtrates as a red Fe (III) chelate, and a fraction with similar biological properties was obtained from whole cells. Infrared spectra of SK, and analyses of unhydrolyzed and acid-hydrolyzed preparations indicated it to be a secondary hydroxamate; visible absorption maxima of the ferric complex showed pH dependency typical of ferric monohydroxamates. Schizokinen preparations from cultures grown at "normal" and at low Fe concentrations were similar biologically and in certain of their chemical properties, but their R(F) values and infrared spectra suggested nonidentity. Significant lag reduction of B. megaterium was effected by 0.2 mmug of SK per ml; the Fe (III)-SK chelate and "iron-free" SK were equally effective. A 50-mmug amount produced half-maximal growth response of the siderochrome auxotroph, Arthrobacter JG-9. Schizokinen also overcame ferrimycin A inhibition of three Bacillus species. These properties relate the B. megaterium schizokinen to the trihydroxamate siderochromes, although SK appears to be a monohydroxamate.

Bacillus megaterium↗

Inoculum-dependent division lag of Bacillus cultures and its relation to an endogenous factor(s) ("schizokinen").

Lankford, C. E. (The University of Texas, Austin), James R. Walker, James B. Reeves, N. H. Nabbut, B. R. Byers, and R. J. Jones. Inoculum-dependent division lag of Bacillus cultures and its relation to an endogenous factor(s) ("schizokinen"). J. Bacteriol. 91:1070-1079. 1966.-When cells of Bacillus megaterium, grown on Brain Heart Infusion Agar, were inoculated into a chemically defined medium, they exhibited a division lag which was an inverse function of inoculum size. The addition of filtrates of cultures from the same medium eliminated the inoculum-dependent component of lag, but not an inoculum-independent residual lag of constant duration. Culture filtrate of B. subtilis var. niger not only eliminated its inoculum-dependent lag but also was required to sustain exponential division. Dose-response and "growth time" bioassays, developed to measure lag-reducing activity of filtrates, demonstrated accumulation of active filtrate factor to a "critical" concentration prior to division initiation. Addition of this concentration to cultures eliminated the inoculum-dependent lag. Accumulation of the factor ceased temporarily at onset of division, but excretion was resumed later during exponential growth. Accumulation of a lag-reducing, cell-associated factor followed a similar course. Chromatographic and bioautographic analyses of culture filtrates of B. megaterium indicated that a single substance was primarily responsible for their activity. Results of dose-response tests for reciprocal activities of filtrates of different Bacillus species and strains suggested production of different factors by some, and of different quantities of similar factors by others. It is proposed that such endogenous factors which are synthesized and accumulate to a population-dependent concentration as a requisite to initiation and maintenance of division be designated as "schizokinens."

Bacillus cereus↗