[Inorganic polyphosphate metabolism in Staphylococcus aureus and the action on it of antibiotics]

The culure of Staph. aureus in the exponential growth phase contained 14-18 mg/g of dry orthophosphate biomass and 18-22 mg/g of dry acid insoluble polyphosphate biomass. The extracellular extract of the culture had a phosphohydrolase activity with respect to high molecular polyphosphates, tripolyphosphate and pyrophosphate. Penicillin and bacitracin which inhibited the biosynthesis of the cell wall had no effect on the content of polyphosphates and the phosphohydrolase activity of Staph. aureus. Heliomycin which inhibited the biosynthesis of RNA increased the content of polyphosphates by 1.5 times and decreased the content of ATP by 30 per cent in the cells of Staph. aureus.