In previous studies, Staphylococcus aureus has been shown to bind fibronectin (P. Kuusela, Nature (London) 276:718-720, 1978), an interaction that may be important in bacterial attachment and opsonization. Recently some strains of streptococci of serological groups A, C, and G were also found to bind fibronectin. The binding to one selected strain of Streptococcus pyogenes has been characterize...

Naturally competent bacteria have the ability to take up free DNA from the surrounding medium and incorporate this DNA into their genomes by homologous recombination. In naturally competent Streptococcus pneumoniae, and related streptococcal species from the mitis phylogenetic group, the competent state is not a constitutive property but is induced by a peptide pheromone through a quorum-sensin...

newborns’ bacterial infections due to group b streptococcus (gbs) happen in two forms including early-onset disease or late-onset disease. in this paper, we report a case of early-onset gbs infection in a male infant. a 22-year-old primigravid woman delivers a term normal looking male infant. nasal flaring, grunting, and poor feeding presented soon after birth. an empiric treatment with intrave...

BACKGROUND Indiscriminate disposal of untreated wastes which are often heavily laden with sewage microorganisms some of which are pathogenic to humans into aquatic environments near cities could serve as potential dangers to human health. OBJECTIVE A prospective study was undertaken to investigate the scope of potential bacterial pathogens and to assess the extent of pollution of the Douala l...

Like the cells of other bacteria that are not rod shaped, Streptococcus pneumoniae cells manage to avoid potentially distressing changes in their surface-to-volume ratio as they grow. The work reported by Fadda et al. in this issue (9) on the streptococcal DivIVA protein suggests new ideas on how this protein may contribute to transformation of the midcell into two pointed poles that result in ...

Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were used as an experimental host model to investigate the mechanism(s) of streptococcal adhesion in infective endocarditis. Adhesion activity of Streptococcus gordonii was maximal during the logarithmic phase of growth and was greatly reduced or eliminated by pretreatment of bacteria with heat, formaldehyde, or trypsin. At saturating numbers of st...

Here we show that S. suis, a major bacterial pathogen of pigs and emerging pathogen in humans responds to a peptide pheromone by developing competence for DNA transformation. This species does not fall within any of the phylogenetic clusters of streptococci previously shown to regulate competence via peptide pheromones suggesting that more species of streptococci may be naturally competent. Ind...

Streptococci represent a diverse group of Gram-positive bacteria, which colonize a wide range of hosts among animals and humans. Streptococcal species occur as commensal as well as pathogenic organisms. Many of the pathogenic species can cause severe, invasive infections in their hosts leading to a high morbidity and mortality. The consequence is a tremendous suffering on the part of men and li...

OBJECTIVES To examine potential correlations between streptococcal biofilm formation and lactate production in streptococcal biofilms formed on the surface of dental materials with different surface characteristics. MATERIALS AND METHODS Samples of a glass-ionomer cement (Ketac Molar) and a ceramic (Empress 2) were incubated with whole saliva and suspensions of Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175...