Production of α-toxin by starved staphylococci

Protein A as a substrate of endogenous metabolism in staphylococci

“…The starved cells are resting cells which do not synthetize protein A de novo and do not reconstruct the cell wall. Szewczyk and Mikucki [14] found that during starvation c~-toxin was not released, either. The cells of the strain Smith diffuse lost protein A during starvation.…”

“…These observations and the absence of protein A in the suspending fluid indicate that the former was utilized during starvation. It follows that, like coagulase [15] and intracellular a-toxin [14], it is an endogenous metabolism substrate in staphylococci. Forsgren [16] found that protein A is a compound not necessary for staphylococcal cell.…”

“…After its loss strain Smith diffuse cells retained full viability. Starved cell cultures developed as well as the non-starved ones [14,15].…”