Abstract
The occurrence of lysogeny and bacteriocinogeny was systematically investigated in 106 strains of Clostridium species (non-pathogenic and mostly acetone-butanol- or isopropanol-butanol-producing) by cross-testing all the strains against each other. Consequently, it was found that 4 strains were lysogenic and other 18 strains bacteriocinogenic, and that all the strains were sensitive to one or more of bacteriocins and 15 strains of them were sensitive to the phages as well as bacteriocins.
The four temperate phages isolated were indistinguishable from each other in their host ranges, serological properties and other characteristics tested, and named as KT.
Grouping of the bacteriocins on the basis of their activity spectra and their specificity against bacteriocin-resistant mutants showed that 18 bacteriocins fell into 5 groups. The bacteriocins were named as clostocin, and groups of clostocin were designated as A, B, C, D and E, respectively.
There was cross-resistance between KT-phage and clostocin A, suggesting a common receptor. There were no correlations between the KT-phage or clostocins and the HM-phages of Cl. saccharoperbutylaeetonicum.
