Effect of lysogenic conversion of Corynebacterium diphtheriae strain on its iron assimilation and spectrum of cellular proteins

Growth of the isogenic pair of C. diphtheriae strains, the nontoxigenic strain C7 (-) and the toxigenic strain C7 (beta), was studied under conditions of limited availability of the iron source. The growth of the toxigenic strain was shown to depend on the concentration of iron in the medium to a lesser degree than the nontoxigenic one. Lysogenic conversion results in the synthesis of additional iron-dependent proteins, absent in C. diphtheriae initial nontoxigenic strain C7 (-). Special attention was paid to proteins with a mol. wt. 66 kD, synthesized by the toxigenic strain irrespective of the concentration of iron in the medium, while in the toxigenic strain these proteins were detected only under conditions of iron deficiency.