Abstract
A newly developed microassay offers a sensitive method for quantitating egg yolk reactivity in culture supernatants and samples prepared during enzyme purification. Equal volumes of supernatant, saline, egg yolk suspended in saline, and buffer were incubated in microtiter wells at 37°C, and the resulting turbidity was measured quantitatively with an ELISA reader at 410 nm. The microassay was used to screen culture supernatants from nine clinical isolates ofPseudomonas cepacia, and the results were compared with those obtained when the isolates were screened on egg yolk agar. The microassay was also used to detect egg yolk reactivity in ammonium sulfate-precipitated fractions of the culture supernatant of one strain, Pc224c, and to determine which fraction of egg yolk contained the substrate for the activity.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Anwar H, Brown MRW, Lambert PA (1983) Effect of nutrient depletion on sensitivity ofPseudomonas cepacia to phagocytosis and serum bactericidal activity at different temperatures. J Gen Microbiol 129:2021–2027
Esselmann MT, Liu PV (1961) Lecithinase production by gram-negative bacteria. J Bacteriol 81:939–945
Gillespie WA, Alder VG (1952) Production of opacity in egg yolk media by coagulase-positive staphylococci. J Pathol Bacteriol 64:187–200
Lonon MK, Morris Hooke A (1990) Phospholipase C and egg yolk-reactive enzyme activities ofPseudomonas cepacia. Abstracts of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology 1990:58
Lonon MK, Straus DC (1989) An exolipase ofPseudomonas cepacia as a potential virulence factor in pulmonary disease. Abstracts of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology 1989:72
Lonon MK, Woods DE, Straus DC (1988) Production of lipase by clinical isolates ofPseudomonas cepacia. J Clin Microbiol 26:979–984
MacFarlane RG, Oakley CL, Anderson CG (1941) Hemolysis and the production of opalescence in serum and lecitho-vitellin by theα toxin ofClostridium welchii. J Pathol Bacteriol 52:99–103
McKevitt AI, Woods, DE (1984) Characterization ofPseudomonas cepacia isolated from patients with cystic fibrosis. J Clin Microbiol 19:291–293
Tirunaryanan MO, Lundbeck H (1968) Investigations on the enzymes and toxins of staphylococci. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand 72:263–276
Vasil ML, Krieg DP, Kuhns JS, Ogle JW, Shortridge VD, Ostroff RM, Vasil AI (1990) Molecular analysis of hemolytic and phospholipase C activities ofPseudomonas cepacia. Infect Immun 58:4020–4029
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lonon, M.K., Morris Hooke, A. A microassay for the quantitative measurement of egg yolk-reactive enzyme activity produced byPseudomonas cepacia . Current Microbiology 23, 81–84 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02092254
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02092254