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Infect Immun. 1973 May; 7(5): 817-822
Copyright © 1973 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Effects of Lysozyme and Chitinase on the Spherules of Coccidioides immitis In Vitro

¹ Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, California 95616

ABSTRACT

Spherules of Coccidioides immitis strain Silveira produced in vitro were treated with chitinase and lysozyme. The walls of merthiolate-killed mature endosporulating spherules were degraded by chitinase (500 µg/ml) and by lysozyme (100 and 500 µg/ml). Thus, as was visible through the light microscope, the spherule wall was reduced in thickness from 1 to 2 µm to less than 0.5 µm. The degradation was evident also by release of N-acetylglucosamine, three times as much N-acetylglucosamine being released by chitinase in 12 h as was released by lysozyme in 3 days. However, the effect of lysozyme on living mature spherules was in marked contrast to the effect of chitinase in that treatment with lysozyme led to marked reduction in viability. Exposure to lysozyme (500 µg/ml) for 48 h permitted survival of only 0 to 0.2% of spherules. Thinning of the walls was observed only in the larger spherules (25-35 µm) treated with lysozyme. By contrast, chitinase (500 µg/ml) led to complete dissolution of the walls of living mature spherules but the viability of the liberated endospores was unaffected during contact with chitinase for 48 h. Living non-endosporulating immature spherules and free endospores were also rendered nonviable by lysozyme but not by chitinase.