We maintain a culture collection cataloged as The Staphylococcal Genetic Stock Center which consists of my collection and the collection of P. A. Pattee and contains more than 5,000 marked and cataloged trains. Ultimately the BAC and lambda clones will be added to the culture collections we administer. Requests for cultures should be sent to me at this address. The second project involves molecular characterization and sequencing of the staphylococcal plasmid pRW001 which encodes the genes for exfoliative toxin B and for the broad spectrum bacteriocin BacR1. BacR1 is a powerful anti-staphylococcal substance that is highly hydrophobic and is being developed as a new class of antibiotic.
Intensive efforts are underway to identify, map and characterize the bacteriocin genes.
Because of its broad spectrum of activity, it has great potential for use in antibiotic therapy of a number of wide-spread infections of man and animals. The BacR1 genes are located on a 10 kb complex operon encoding the structural gene, genes for modification ,transport and immunity. The material is extracellular, has a molecular weight of 3218 daltons is membrane active and bacteriocidal but does not lyse cells. Eta is a chromosomal gene in all species examined and Etb is plasmid borne. Evidence suggests that these genes were brought to the cell on mobile elements similar to the pathogenicity islands recently described in S. aureus .