Lysogeny Among the Enterotoxigenic Staphylococci

Twenty cultures of enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus representing strains that produce enterotoxin A, B, or enterotoxin of a serological type(s) other than A or B were examined for temperate phages by use of 118 strains of S. aureus as indicator organisms. All enterotoxigenic cultures were found to be lysogenic. Phage activity pattern as well as neutralization studies indicated greater similarity among the temperate phages of cultures that produced enterotoxin B than among those producing other types of enterotoxin.5. aureus S-6, an enterotoxin B producer, was found to be monolysogenic. Nonlysogenic and defectively lysogenic cells were isolated from this organism at a frequency of 1 in 150 and 1 in 225 respectively of ultraviolet irradiation survivors. Fermentations of the nonlysogenic and defectively lysogenic isolates from S. aureus S-6 demonstrated that phage in the prophage, vegetative, or free state was not essential for the production of enterotoxin.