“…The third mechanism is tolerance to the bactericidal effect of ,B-lactam antibiotics (for reviews, see references 425, 426, and 515a). The lysis that follows inhibition of cell wall synthesis by an antibiotic is brought about by intracellular or cell wall-associated autolytic enzymes (370). Tolerant microorganisms have reduced autolytic activity (35), and in the case of staphylococci, experiments indicate that this is due to an excess of an autolysin inhibitor (429).…”