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-posit ive bacteria to obtain cellular protein extracts from relatively small amounts of biomass. The treatment of cell extracts with acetone and t he subsequent application of commercial mutanolysin (from Streptomyces globisporus) was found to be useful for obtaining sufficient yields o f proteins. Representative strains of the genera Listeria, Arthrobract er, Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus and Bacillus were sho wn to be sensitive to this method. In combination with a standardized reading and evaluation of the electrophoretic traces, this method seem s to be useful for rapidly screening a large number of Gram-positive b acteria, e.g. for taxonomic purposes.