Cereolysin: production, purification and partial characterization.

SUMMARY: A method is described for production of the extracellular haemolytic growth-product of Bacillus cereus. The lytic substance, called ‘cereolysin’, can be purified by fractional precipitation with ammonium sulphate, density-gradient electrophoresis and gel filtration. The purified material is a labile protein of molecular weight about 52,000. It has a very high order of haemolytic activity, is lethal for mice, and resembles streptolysin O in being inhibited by cholesterol, but differs from streptolysin O in other respects.