[Effect of regulators on bacterial autolysis]

The aim of this work was to study the effect of autolysis regulators (the fraction of microbial teichoic acids) on the rate of autolysis and the activity of bacterial extracellular lytic enzymes. The regulators of autolysis isolated from 23 cultures belonging to 10 microbial species regulated the rate of autolysis in Bacillus, E. coli and Streptococcus lactis. The regulators either activated or inhibited autolysis depending on the substrate (of a bacterium to be subjected to autolysis). The quantitative dependence of the autolysis rate on the regulator concentration was specific for each pair 'regulator--substrate'. The regulatory properties of the fraction of teichoic acids varied depending on the age of a culture from which they had been isolated. The regulators of autolysis, with an exception of the preparation from E. coli, inhibited the activity of B. subtilis extracellular lytic enzymes in the course of their action on E. coli cells. The possibility for using the regulators of autolysis in microbiological processes is discussed.