AN EFFICIENT METHOD FOR PREPARATION OF EXTRACTS FROM GRAM-POSITIVE BACTERIA FOR COMPARISON OF CELLULAR PROTEIN-PATTERNS

An efficient method is described for the lysis of different Gram-positive bacteria to obtain cellular protein extracts from relatively small amounts of biomass. The treatment of cell extracts with acetone and the subsequent application of commercial mutanolysin (from Streptomyces globisporus) was found to be useful for obtaining sufficient yields of proteins. Representative strains of the genera Listeria, Arthrobracter, Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus and Bacillus were shown to be sensitive to this method. In combination with a standardized reading and evaluation of the electrophoretic traces, this method seems to be useful for rapidly screening a large number of Gram-positive bacteria, e.g. for taxonomic purposes.