Effects of Lysozyme and Inorganic Anions on the Morphology of Streptococcus mutans BHT: Electron Microscopic Examination

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The effects of hen egg white lysozyme and the inorganic salt sodium thiocyanate on the integrity of Streptococcus mutans BHT were studied by transmission electron microscopy. Both control cells and cells exposed to NaSCN possessed thick outer cell walls and densely staining inner cell walls juxtaposed to the plasma membranes. In the presence of NaSCN, however, the S. mutans BHT nucleoid was coagulated into thick electron-dense filaments. Exposure of S. mutans BHT to 150 μg of hen egg white lysozyme per ml resulted in the progressive destruction of both the cell walls and the plasma membranes. The enzyme appeared to affect the region of the cell wall septum, and exposure to 150 μg of hen egg white lysozyme per ml for as short a time as 10 min resulted in visible morphological cell wall alterations. At 30 min, ultrastructural observations revealed that the majority of the cells were in the process of expelling a portion of their cytoplasmic contents from the septal and other regions of the cells at the time of fixation. After 3 h of incubation in the presence of this high lysozyme concentration, gelled protoplasmic masses, which were free from the cells, were evident. In addition, extensive damage to the outer and inner cell walls and to the plasma membranes was apparent, although the cells maintained their shape. On some areas of the cell surface, the outer cell wall and plasma membrane were completely absent, whereas at other locations the outer cell wall was either split away from the inner cell wall and plasma membrane or distended from an area free of inner cell wall and plasma membrane. Upon addition of NaSCN to the hen egg white lysozyme-treated cells, both the gelled protoplasmic masses and the damaged cells exhibited an exploded appearance and existed as membrane ghosts, cell wall fragments, or dense aggregates of cytoplasmic components. The effects of a low lysozyme concentration (22.5 μg/ml) on S. mutans morphology were less pronounced at short incubation times (i.e., 10 and 30 min) than those that were observed with a high enzyme concentration; however, breaks in the cell walls and dissolution of the plasma membranes with resulting cell lysis were visible after a prolonged (3-h) incubation and after subsequent addition of NaSCN.

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