Studies on group A (phage tail) bacteriocins of Serratia marcescens. V. Serological characterization of subgroup I...

Neutralization tests with rabbit hyperimmune sera revealed a close, if not identical, serological relationship among 7 group A (phage tail) bacteriocins of Serratia marcescens of subgroup I, and among 3 phage tail bacteriocins of subgroup II, respectively. On the other hand, subgroup I and II phage tail bacteriocins were found to be serologically unrelated, as determined with neutralization tests and Ouchterlony immunodiffusion experiments. Immunoelectrophoretic tests, employing a representive phage tail bacteriocin of each of the two subgroups, disclosed the electrophoretic mobility of bacteriocin no. 5 (subgroup I), whereas bacteriocin no. 16 (subgroup II) remained stationary. Thus, two additional differential criteria, i.e., differences in antigenicity and electrophoretic mobility, were obtained for the characterization of subgroup I and II group A (phage tail) bacteriocins of S. marcescens.