The growth rate regulates the composition and density of the fibrillar coat on the surface of Streptococcus salivarius K+ cells

Abstract Streptococcus salivarius HB (Lancefield group K) was grown in continuous culture on a chemically defined medium under glucose limitation. The structure and composition of the cell surface was investigated using negative-stain electron microscopy of whole cells and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and rocket immunoelectrophoresis (RIEP) of mutanolysin-solubilized cell-wall fractions. Under most steady-state growth conditions the density of the fibrillar fringe varied from cell to cell, whereas most stationary-phase batch-grown cells exhibited a uniformly dense fibrillar fringe. Varying the generation time at pH 7 over the range from 44 to 560 min profoundly affected both the density of the fibrillar layer and the distribution of specific protein antigens. At intermediate growth rates the fibrillar adhesins AgB and AgC were optimally expressed. At high growth rates the cells were virtually bald and the adhesins were absent from the cell walls. AgD and an unidentified cell wall-associated protein, however, were expressed at all growth rates tested. Slowly growing cells apparently lacked protease-resistant long fibrils but possessed the proteinaceous adhesins.