Serotype c Streptococcus mutans mutatable to lactate dehydrogenase deficiency.

Three lactate-dehydrogenase-deficient mutants of serotype c S. mutans were made by using, as parents, two serotype c strains that produced unusually large amounts of ethanol, acetic acid, and acetoin, and very little lactic acid, when grown in broth containing a limiting amount of glucose. The mutants, obtained with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, were stable during 12 weeks of daily subculture in broth. Crude cell-free extracts of the mutants had less than 1% of the LDH-specific activity of their parent strains. The serotype c mutants resembled serotype g mutants in having molar growth yields at least as high as those of their parents. However, in contrast to the g mutants, the c mutants produced cell crops (cell mass per ml medium) that were as high as those of their parent strains.