LYSOZYME ACTION AND ITS RELATION TO THE NAKAMURA EFFECT

Abstract

Clearing of a bacterial suspension is not a valid measurement of lysozyme action unless environmental conditions relating to pH are adjusted to permit max. solubility. With Micrococcus lysodeikticus. little or no clearing was observed at low pH ranges, yet the cells showed the Nakamura effect Electron microscopic observation of cells exposed to lysozyme at low pH levels showed that considerable enzymatic action had occurred. The solubilization of the cytoplasm by alkali (Nakamura effect) is possible only after the cell wall is removed or sufficiently degraded by lysozyme, to permit contact between alkali and cytoplasm. Saturation of cell wall prepns. or intact cells with Alcian blue results in complete inhibition of lysozyme action. The gram-positive state is not dependent (chemically) on the presence of the lysozyme substrate in the cell wall of M. lysodeikticus. Gram-positive cells become gram-negative after removal of the lysozyme substrate because of changes induced in cell wall permeability.