[Cellular lysis and dissociative phase of the genus Bacillus]

Abstract

The sensitivity of the dissociative variants "R", "RS" and "S" of the spore-forming bacilli to some lytic agents (lysozyme, sodium lauryl sulphate, lipase, trypsin and some of their associations) has been studied. The research has been carried out on 32 strains: 14 "R", 14 "RS" and 4 "S" of different species of the genus Bacillus. The results have shown that the sensitivity to the studied lytic agents is strictly correlated, not to the species, but to the dissociative phases: these results are in accordance with those obtained in previous researches, carried out by the same Authors, on other characters, both morphological and biological, of the same variants. Thus, also through this way, it is possible to reach the conclusion that within this genus, there is more similarity among the different species of the same dissociative phase than among different dissociative variants of the same species. The results obtained in the present study allow to advance hypothesis, based also on the data of the literature, about the composition of the cell walls of the three above mentioned dissociative variants of the strains belonging to the genus Bacillus.