| Abstract |
Occurrence and distribution of sucrose metabolizing enzymes in oral streptococci had been studied. In these studies, the carbohydrate component of the culture medium had been glucose. I have extended these studies by analyzing bacterial culture supernatants for the relative content of hexosyltransferases, namely glucosyl and fructosyltransferase. As a carbohydrate, fructose was used. The growth measured for nine oral streptococci (Strptococcus mutans strains BHT, ING, AHT, 6715, LM-7, and SL-1 ; Streptococcus sanguis 903, 9811, and M-5) varied. The level of glucosyltansferase activity also varied among S. mutans strains, and its level in S. sanguis was relatively low. Fructosyltansferase activity of the various strains fluctuated more than of glucosyltransferase. S.mutans strain LM-7 had significantly higher level of both enzymes. As a whole, fructose-grown cultures had generally an agreeable trend of enzyme activity to those from glucose-grown cultures. |
