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Infection and Immunity, July 1999, p. 3690-3692, Vol. 67, No. 7
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Effect of Intrastrain Variation in the Amount of Capsular Polysaccharide on Genetic Transformation of Streptococcus pneumoniae: Implications for Virulence Studies of Encapsulated Strains

Jeffrey N. Weiser,* and Miki Kapoor

Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

Received 18 February 1999/Returned for modification 26 March 1999/Accepted 13 April 1999

The degrees of competence of opaque and transparent colony variants of Streptococcus pneumoniae were compared. The transparent variants were transformed at 9- to 670-fold-higher rates than the opaque variants, independent of the DNA incorporated, due to decreased expression of capsular polysaccharide. Genetic transformation, therefore, tends to select for a less-encapsulated subpopulation.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, 301B Johnson Pavilion, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6076. Phone: (215) 573-3511. Fax: (215) 898-9557. E-mail: weiser{at}mail.med.upenn.edu.


Infection and Immunity, July 1999, p. 3690-3692, Vol. 67, No. 7
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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