The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 12, Issue 1 9-15, Copyright © 1979 by Society for General Microbiology
Evaluation of the lysostaphin-susceptibility test for the classification of staphylococci
H. Heddaeus, P. B. Heczko and G. Pulverer
A collection of 39 staphylococcal strains of known peptidoglycan structure
was cultivated on media supplemented with different peptones or with
glycine or inosine. The susceptibility to lysostaphin 50 mg/litre was then
checked by a plate-dilution method. The results of the test were dependent
on the conditions of growth. Another collection of 403 staphylococcal
strains from international collections, clinical material and healthy human
skin was also tested for susceptibility to lysostaphin. No uniform pattern
of the lysostaphin sensitivity in individual staphylococcal species was
found. The lysostaphin-susceptibility test thus seems to be of little value
in the classification of staphylococci for the purposes of medical
microbiology.
