Five Bacteroides fragilis strains and five Bacteroides vulgatus strains were compared with regard to their ability to consume complement and to fix C3, their killing by polymorphonuclear leucocytes, and their ability to inhibit the bactericidal effect of serum and polymorphs on Escherichia coli strains. Complement consumption was positively related to C3 fixation, but no relation was observed b...

A simple rapid glutamic decarboxylase test is described. This test was found useful in the identification of Escherichia coli, Shigella sp., Providencia alcalifaciens, Clostridium perfringens and Bacteroides fragilis.

The first case of septic arthritis due to Bacteroides fragilis in a wrist joint is described together with its successful treatment.

The in vitro susceptibility of 157 anaerobic bacteria to imipenem was compared with that to cefoxitin, latamoxef (moxalactam) and clindamycin. The isolates were cultured from clinical specimens submitted to Tufts Anaerobic Laboratory between January 1981 and March 1983. Two strains of Bacteroides fragilis only, were highly resistant to imipenem. The incidence of cefoxitin resistance in the Bact...

Genetic analysis of Bacteroides fragilis (BF) is hindered because of the lack of efficient transposon mutagenesis methods. Here, we describe a simple method for transposon mutagenesis using EZ::TN5, a commercially available system that we optimized for use in BF638R. The modified EZ::TN5 transposon contains an Escherichia coli conditional origin of replication, a kanamycin resistance gene for E...