Identification and typing of pyogenic streptococci by enzyme electrophoretic polymorphism.

Polyacrylamide-agarose gel electrophoresis was used to study polymorphism of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), nucleoside phosphorylase (NSP), phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HBD), adenylate kinase (ADK) and esterases of 44 strains of Streptococcus pyogenes, 25 group G streptococcal strains, 11 "S. equisimilis" strains, seven S. dysgalactiae strains, four S. canis strains, three S. equi strains and seven S. zooepidemicus strains. Analysis of LDH, NSP, PGI, HBD and ADK provided valuable interspecies differentiation, by showing that four groups of strains corresponded to the four known DNA homology groups. Esterases showed greater intraspecies variation than the other enzymes. The combined analysis of the six enzymes indicated 31 zymotypes among S. pyogenes, 14 in group G streptococci and 11 in "S. equisimilis" strains. This was shown to be an effective technique for typing pyogenic streptococci.