[Production of a lysozyme-like enzyme by various representatives of the genus Staphylococcus]

On the basis of studying 855 strains of various staphylococci it was shown that production of a lysozyme-like enzyme (LLE) failed to serve as a characteristic sign for all the representatives of Staphylococcus genus. It was mostly observed in S. aureus (in 85% of the strains). In nonpathogenic strains of S. epidermidis LLE could not be revealed either by the dish or by affine chromatography on chitin; among S. epidermidis, isolated from the patients there were cultures which did or did not form the LLE. Cultures occupying an intermediate position (coagulase-negative or mannite-negative) formed the LLE in 66.9% of cases. It was shown that the virulence and the general biological activity of the lysozyme-positive intermediate strains were higher than in the lysozyme-negative ones.