Abstract
Antimicrobial actions of trialkyltin compounds on Escherichia coli JE 1011 and its NS mutants were investigated.
1. Triethyltin chloride (TET) revealed antimicrobial action similarly on JE 1011 and NS mutants, and tripropyltin chloride (TPT) showed more activity on NS mutants than on JE 1011, however tributyltin chloride (TBT) was effective only on NS mutants.
2. Partition coefficient of TET, TPT and TBT were 2.5, 22 and 49, respectively, indicating that the more carbon number in alkyl chain of the compounds, the more hydrophobic. Partition was determined in the 1-octanol/0.05M sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) system at 20°C.
3. LPS and protein were rapidly released from JE 1011 treated with EDTA. Antimicrobial action on JE 1011 was increased in the case of TPT and TBT by EDTA treatment of the cells, especially in TBT, but not in TET.
4. From these results and data on the LPS of these strains, it was suggested that outer membrane of JE 1011 was permeability barrier for TPT and TBT which were more hydrophobic than TET.
