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Inducible Lysis in Clostridium tetani

^a Biological Sciences Laboratory, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland

ABSTRACT

Lysis was induced in seven strains of Clostridium tetani by exposure to mitomycin C. The search for a suitable indicator strain to detect bacteriophage in lysates has, so far, been unsuccessful. Inhibition studies on macromolecular synthesis during induction have shown that deoxyribonucleic acid, ribonucleic acid, and protein syntheses are all involved in the lysis induced by mitomycin C. In experiments comparing toxin and protein content in induced and uninduced cells of C. tetani, the toxin-protein ratio proved to be the same in both systems up to the point of lysis. Several possible hypotheses deduced from these results are discussed.

¹ National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate.