Unusual resistance and acquired tolerance to cadmium chloride in Enterococcus faecalis.

Enterococcus faecalis exhibits an extremely high natural resistance to cadmium which can be even raised by a conditioning treatment at a lower cadmium concentration as well as by a previous exposure to a sublethal temperature. By contrast, thermotolerance is not significantly induced by previous exposure to low cadmium concentration. The synthesis of several proteins is markedly enhanced by a low concentration of the chemical agent.