Diplococcus pneumoniae

The polysaccharides of pneumococcus (Diplococcus pneumoniae) have been the subjects of numerous investigations in the past twenty years. It is possible within the limits of this review to consider only a few of the more important results briefly. 

The pneumococci all belong to different types of the same species, namely, Streptococcus pneumoniae. This was earlier called Diplococcus pneumoniae, but has been renamed.5 6 7 There are some 80 different types of pneumococcus, and two systems of nomenclature, the Danish, used in Europe, and Eddy s, used in the United States.8 Tables correlating the Danish and American designations have been published.8 The Danish system, with Arabic numerals and common abbreviations, such as Phi for Type 1 and SI for its type-specific, capsular polysaccharide, will be used in this article. 

Immunoadsorbents can be made with whole antigens or haptens. For example, Haber42 reported the preparation of a Diplococcus pneumoniae Type III immunoadsorbent. The capsular polysaccharide (S III) was p-nitrobenzylated to a low degree of substitution by the method of Avery and Goebel.43 The resultant ether was re-... 

More complicated TAs were found in cells of Diplococcus pneumoniae (Pneumococcus) 15,16,19,20> and in different types of Haemophilus influenza21). 

Lacks and Greenberg (10) have purified an exonuclease from Diplococcus pneumoniae with properties very similar to E. coli exonuclease III. The pneumococcal enzyme acts preferentially on native DNA producing 5 -mononucleotides and single strands which are not susceptible to further attack. Like exonuclease III it shows an intrinsic 3 -phosphoryl-DNA phosphatase activity. A DNA phosphatase-exonuclease activity has also been reported in B. subtilis (11). 

However, the first mutants which were recognized as affecting mismatch repair were found in bacteria. The hex mutant of Streptococcus (Diplococcus) pneumoniae, which increases the transformation rate of certain markers a hundred-fold, was found to be a mutator. Transformation in S. pneumoniae involves the uptake of a single strand of donor DNA and efficiency is limited by the correction of the mutational difference between donor and recipient. In /iex-mutants, the directionality of this correction is abolished (Lacks, 1970). Subsequently a number of... 

Lacks, S.A. (1970). Mutants of Diplococcus pneumoniae that lack deoxyribonucleases and other activities possibly pertinent to genetic transformation. J. Bacteriol. 101, 119-131. 

Clostridium perfringens neuraminidase was purchased from Worthington Co. and purified by affinity chromatography (6). 8-Galactosidase and B-H-Acetylglucosaminidase were isolated from a culture filtrate of Diplococcus pneumoniae by a modification of the procedure of Hughes and Jeanloz (7). 

Streptococcus pneumoniae (Diplococcus pneumonia ) Pneumonia (croupous or... 

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