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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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