Antagonism between Vegetative Cells and L-Forms of Bacillus licheniformis Strain 6346

Abstract

Landman and Halle¹ showed that lysozyme or penicillin in suitable circumstances could cause mass conversion of vegetative cells of Bacillus subtilis strain 168 (indole⁻) to L-forms. These L-forms could be sub-cultured on so-called “S.D.” medium which contains glucose salts, horse serum, sodium succinate and tryptophan, with 0.9 per cent agar. Prolonged incubation (5–10 days) on the normal medium (S.D.) or short incubation (48 h) on media with an increased concentration of agar led to equally massive reversion of the L-forms back to bacteria. Later² the conversion to L-forms of both B. subtilis and B. licheniformis was shown to be accompanied by the extrusion of mesosomes. The authors comment that “Our data on the stimulation of reversion by physical agents have suggested … that membrane invagination may be the primary event”.