IMMUNOLOGY OF THE YEAST HANSENULA WINGEI

Abstract

Brookbank, John W. (University of Florida, Gainesville) and Mary R. Heisler . Immunology of the yeast Hansenula wingei . J. Bacteriol. 85: 509–515. 1963.—Antisera produced in three groups of rabbits (18 animals in all) against mating types of Hansenula wingei , using three different modes of injection, failed to show specificity for mating type. However, the antisera were reactive with material obtained from the cells (presumably from the cell wall) by extraction at 100 C. A constituent of this fraction of boiled cells is in some way involved in the auto-agglutination of unboiled cells upon the disruption of these cells in a Mickle disintegrator. The antisera are of broad specificity regarding their ability to agglutinate cells of other species of Hansenula , and have been shown to react with a minimum of one antigen found in supernatants of both H. anomala and H. saturnus boiled cells in double agar diffusion tests. H. wingei supernatants (boiled cells), in reaction with homologous antisera, show additional components not shown by H. anomala or H. saturnus .