Salt-induced L-forms of Staphylococcus aureus.

When growing cultures of a salt-sensitive strain of Staphylococcus aureus were inoculated on nutrient agar containing 0.8 M NaCl and 0.5% bovine serum albumin, typical colonies of L-form developed extensively after 2 days of incubation at 30 C. Incubation of growing cultures with lipoteichoic acid, sodium polyanethole sulfonate and subtilisin resulted in inhibition of L-form induction.