Amylase-binding as a discriminition among oral streptococci

作者：C.W.I. Douglas · 发表于：FEMS Microbiology Letters · 年份：1990 · DOI：10.1016/0378-1097(90)90281-t · 被引用次数：70 · 研究领域：Streptococcal Infections and Treatments、Oral microbiology and periodontitis research、Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus

The ability of 51 strains, belonging to Streptococcus sanguis, 'S. mitior', S. oralis and related groups, to bind salivary amylase was studied. Most strains were grouped according to their DNA-relatedness and then compared using 14 phenotypic tests. S. mitis, 'S. mitior' and three relatively new groups of strains ('CR', 'MGH' and 'Tufted mitior') bound salivary amylase, while strains of S. sanguis and S. oralis did not. The ability of strains to bind amylase or not was remarkably consistent within groups and the test proved to be reproducible, rapid and easy to perform. Combination of the amylase-binding test with 6 other conventional physiological tests allowed the construction of a dichotomous identification key which correctly identified 95% of strains for which genetic data was available. These findings suggest that the ability of organisms to bind salivary amylase could become a key test in identification schemes for certain oral streptococci.