Cell wall associations of some antigenic proteins of slime-forming, encapsulated Streptococcus cremoris from the fermented milk product "viili"

Abstract

Cell walls were isolated from mechanically disrupted cells of the slime-forming, encapsulated Streptococcus cremoris strains T5 and MLS96 by using sucrose gradient centrifugation as the last purification step. This cell wall isolation procedure was developed to obtain cell wall associated protein components. Sodium dodecyl sulfate – polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed several polypeptide bands; the 50 kiloDalton band was major in strain T5 cell walls and the 26 and 30 kiloDalton bands were major in strain MLS96 cell walls. Both strains contained five antigenic polypeptides with molecular radius (Mr) values of 40, 47, 50, 54, and 70 kiloDaltons as analysed by immunoblotting and autoradiography. The polypeptides of strain MLS96 with molecular mass of 40 and 70 kiloDaltons reacted most strongly with homologous anti-whole cell serum. In addition, antigenic polypeptides with molecular mass of 100 and 160 kiloDaltons were also detected in strain T5.