Abstract
Elimination of plasmids from Thermus flavus, T. thermophilus and three wild Thermus strains caused alterations in growth temperature range, pigmentation and membrane fatty acids without affecting viability. Following plasmid elimination all Thermus strains lost their ability to grow above 70°C. In addition, the minimum growth temperature was lowered by 5–10°C. Fatty acids were reduced by an average of approximately 35%. In addition, the contribution of iso- and anteisobranched fatty acids were altered in four of the five strains. The iso C15:0/iso C17:0 ratio approached 1.0 in all strains, whereas the anteiso C15:0/anteiso C17:0 was reduced to 0.2. The iso C16:0/normal-C16:0 ratio increased in all strains due to an increase in iso C16:0 in four strains and a reduction in normal-C16:0 relative to iso C16:0 in one strain. However, it was evident that the plasmid-free strains were able to compensate for these alterations in membrane fluidity to a certain extent by reducing the average chain length of isobranched acids. Altered fatty acid metabolism at the level of precursors may have influenced membrane composition and consequently growth temperature range.
Published Version
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