[Role of the lysozyme-like enzyme of staphylococci in their pathogenicity].

Observations of the authors of the present work permit to put forward the following suppositions on the biological significance of the lysozyme sign included into the number of sign-of the staphylococcus pathogenicity: 1) the action of the lysozyme-like enzyme (LLE) as a facs for increasing the permeability of the cell wall and thus promoting the exit of the "pathogenicity enzymes"; 2) its participation in the growth and division of staphylococci, pointing to the differences in the rate of the growth of the cultures forming and nonforming the LLE; 3) participation of the LLE in the microbial antagonism processes--crude LLE (in the form of lipoproteid complex) stipulated the antimicrobial effect against a number of nonpathogenic microbes. None of these hypotheses can be accepted without further investigations, particularly with the purified enzyme.

[Production of a lysozyme-like enzyme by various representatives of the genus Staphylococcus].

On the basis of studying 855 strains of various staphylococci it was shown that production of a lysozyme-like enzyme (LLE) failed to serve as a characteristic sign for all the representatives of Staphylococcus genus. It was mostly observed in S. aureus (in 85% of the strains).