Relationship of cell surface morphology and composition of Streptococcus salivarius K+ to adherence and hydrophobicity.

The cell surfaces of a range of variants of Streptococcus salivarius HB, altered in cell wall antigen composition, were compared with those of the parent with respect to adherence, ability to adsorb to hexadecane, morphology, and exposure of lipoteichoic acid (LTA). Adherence to host surfaces was measured by using both saliva-coated hydroxyapatite beads and tissue-cultured HeLa cells, and interbacterial adherence was measured by using Veillonella alcalescens V1 cells. Progressive loss of the protease-sensitive fibril classes was generally associated with decreasing ability to adsorb to hexadecane. However, increased exposure of protein antigen C (AgC) increased the apparent hydrophobicity of the cell. This correlated with the finding that AgC was the most hydrophobic of the solubilized fibrillar cell wall antigens. Collectively, this demonstrates that adsorption to hydrophobic ligands is directly related to the density of the fibrillar layer on the cells and the properties and surface exposure of specific fibril classes. The involvement of hydrophobic interactions in AgC-associated attachment was suggested by its sensitivity to low levels of the hydrophobic bond-breaking agent tetramethyl urea, although the reduction was not to the level of adherence observed with strains lacking AgC. However, hydrophobicity was less essential to other adherence reactions. Circumstantial evidence, including immunoelectron microscopy, showing that LTA was virtually absent from the fibrillar layer, whole-cell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, suggesting that surface exposure of LTA related inversely to the density of the fibrillar layer, and agarose gel electrophoresis, showing that LTA was not specifically associated with protein fibrillar antigens, strongly suggested that LTA does not confer hydrophobic properties to these cells and is not involved in adherence reactions associated with the cell wall protein antigens.