ANALYSIS OF BACTERIOLYTIC ACTIVITY PATTERNS, A NOVEL-APPROACH TO THE TAXONOMY OF ENTEROCOCCI

The bacteriolytic activities of different group D streptococcal species on various media and substrates were studied. Our results showed that all of the enterococcal species which we tested had bacteriolytic activity on at least one of the media used, while the group D nonenterococcal species had no such activity. In addition, using culture media containing different additives and different pH values, we defined seven major groups of bacteriolytic activity (lyogroups), each of which overlapped with one species (four lyogroups), two species (two lyogroups), or four species (one lyogroup). The detection of enterococcal lyogroups proved to be as reliable for species identification as the conventional methods presently in use.