Bacteriocin Activity of Staphylococcus Aureus, Staphylococcus Intermedius and Coagulase-negative Staphylococcal Strains

Skalka B.: Bacteriocin Activity of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus intermedius and Coagulase-n.egative Staphylococcal Strains. Acta vet. Brno, 55, 1986: 65-72. A total of 567 staphylococcal strains was examined for bacteriocin activity. It contained 367 S. aureus strains, 114 S. intermedius strains, and 86 coagulasenegative staphylococci belonging to ten species. The deferred method was employed for detecting bacteriocin producers. Bacterial strains C. renale, C. pseudodiphtheriticum, S. aureus CB-27 and S. aureus Oxford 209P served as indicators. A total of 82 bacteriocin producers was determiI1ed among the strains under study, 12 of them belonging to S. aureus, 51 to S. intermedius, and 19 to the coagulase-negative staphylococci. According to their effects on indicator strains, the bacteriocin producing staphylococci were alloted into 12 groups. The method employed is recommendable for detection of the ability of staphylococcal strains to produce bacteriocins. Staphylococcal bacteriocins, S. aureus, S. intermedius, coagulase-negative staphylococci, deferred method. Since the last century, bacteriology has been familiar with the antibacterial activity of some staphylococci consisting essentially in production of an exosubstance, referred to as bacteriocin or staphylococcin. Alike analogous exosubstances from other Gram-positive bacteria, staphylococcal bacteriocins show discrepancies from classical criteria originally based on the characteristics of colicins (Tagg et al. 1976; Brandis 1981). To be considered as bacteriocin, an antagonistic active exosubstance is supposed to act merely within one species or a group of closely related ones. This criterion is mostly not answered by bacteriocins of Gram-positive bacteria, displaying as a rule a wide spectrum of activity. Bacteriocin production has to be plasmid-borne. The action exerted on sensitive bacteria is bactericidal preserving the morphologic integrity of cells. This is achieved by inhibiting synthesis of nucleic acids and/or cell proteins. The criteria were analyzed and reviewed in detail by Tagg et al. (1976), Pulverer and Jeljaszewicz (1976), Brandis (1981), Ivanov (1983). In case an antagonistic bacterial substance fails to be determined in details, or the criteria have not been fulfilled, it was recommended by the authors quoted to refer to it as to a bacteriocin-like substance. Studies on staphylococcins were stimulated by the observation that by exfoliatin-positive S. aureus strains the production of both exfoliative toxin and staphylococcin BacRl was encoded on the same plasmid (Parker et al. 1955; Parker and Simmons 1959; Rogolsky et al. 1974; Warren et al. 1974). Most work has been done on staphylococcins A-1262a (Lachowicz 1965), C 55 (Dajani et al. 1970),414 (Gagliano and Hinsdill 1970) and 1580 (Jetten and Vogels 1972). The designations micrococcin, aureocin, and epidermidin, were used for some antagonistic substances of staphylococci by some authors (Heatley andDoery 1951; Moore 1970; Hsu and Wiseman 1971). To detect production of staphylococcin, either the simultaneous or the deferred methods are employed. Using the first method, active and indicator strains are cultured at the same time,