UTILIZATION OF CARBOHYDRATES AND METABOLIC INTERMEDIATES BY PILIATED AND NONPILIATED BACTERIA

Abstract

Wohlhieter, J. A. (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C.), C. C. Brinton, Jr., and L. S. Baron. Utilization of carbohydrates and metabolic intermediates by piliated and nonpiliated bacteria. J. Bacteriol. 84:416-421. 1962.-The rate of aerobic and anaerobic metabolism of piliated and nonpiliated bacteria was studied in an effort to determine whether the presence of these surface structures altered the metabolic activity of bacteria. Respiration was measured manometrically when various piliated and nonpiliated strains metabolized glucose and several Krebs-cycle intermediates. Spontaneously produced nonpiliated variants of piliated cells were examined, but no difference in the rate of either aerobic or anaerobic metabolism was observed. Piliated and nonpiliated recombinants of a mating of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhosa had different metabolic rates than the parent strains, but it was shown that these differences were not related to piliation. Clones of piliated and nonpiliated cells isolated from other crosses showed no difference between their respiration rate and that of either parent. Piliated and nonpiliated strains could mutate to higher rates of substrate utilization with no concomitant change in piliation. Since respiration and piliation can mutate independently and segregate independently in genetic crosses, we therefore conclude that there is no direct physiological relationship between them.