Archives of Microbiology

, Volume 120, Issue 1, pp 53–56 | Cite as

A comparative immunological study of catalases from coagulase-positive staphylococci

  • Manfred Rupprecht
  • Karl-Heinz Schleifer
Article
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Abstract

Protein homology studies with catalase as a reference point were carried out with coagulasepositive staphylococci belonging to Staphylococcus aureus, S. intermedius and S. hyicus. Antisera against catalases of S. aureus ATCC 12600 and S. aureus ATCC 12601 reacted very weakly employing double immunodiffusion and quantitative microcomplementfixation assay with cell-free extracts or catalase enriched preparations of S. intermedius or S. hyicus. The differences between coagulase-positive staphylococci could be confirmed by using the antiserum against S. intermedius H 11 catalase. Within the strains of the species S. intermedius immunological distances ranging up to 25 indicate a heterogeneity which justify the separation of the biotypes E and F on a subspecies level. Coagulase-positive strains of S. hyicus revealed neither a close relationship to S. aureus nor to S. intermedius.

Key words

Coagulase-positive staphylococci Catalases Immunological relationships 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1979

Authors and Affiliations

  • Manfred Rupprecht
    • 1
  • Karl-Heinz Schleifer
    • 1
  1. 1.Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie der Technischen Universität MünchenMünchen 2Federal Republic of Germany

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