Physicochemical studies on delta haemolysin, a staphylococcal cytolytic polypeptide

Delta haemolysin is one of a number of extracellular cytolytic polypeptides produced by many isolates of Staphylococcus aureus . The studies described here were designed to investigate and clarify the conflicting relative molecular mass estimates and to provide information about the conformation of the toxin in free solution and in "pseudo membrane" environments using the techniques of fluorescence spectroscopy and gel filtration enabling a more detailed conformational comparison between delta haemolysin and the extensively studied toxin, melittin to be made.