Summary
A series of heat tolerant mutants of Pseudomonas fluorescens were obtained which can grow at temperatures up to 54°C, in contrast to a maximum growth temperature of 37°C for the wild type. The minimum temperatures allowing growth of the mutant strains increased to the same extent as their maximum temperatures. Antibiotic sensitivity patterns suggested the mutants had altered ribosomes, but the purified mutant ribosomes showed no significant increase in thermostability. The virulence of the wild and mutant strains for mice correlated with their relative abilities to grow at the mouse body temperature of approximately 37°C.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, M. B.: The thermophilic aerobic sporeforming bacteria. Bact. Rev. 17, 125–173 (1953).
Altenburg, L. C., Saunders, G. F.: Properties of hybrid ribosomes formed from the subunits of mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria. J. molec. Biol. 55, 487–502 (1971).
Bailey, N. T. J.: Statiscal methods in biology. New York: Wiley 1959.
Brock, T. D.: Life at high temperatures. Science 158, 1012–1019 (1967).
Brock, T. D., Freeze, H.: Thermus aquaticus gen. n. and sp. n., a nonsporulating extreme thermophile. J. Bact. 98, 289–297 (1969).
Campbell, L. L.: Purification and properties of an alpha amylase from facultative thermophilic bacteria. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 54, 154–161 (1955).
Davies, J. E.: Studies on the ribosomes of streptomycin-sensitive and resistant strains of Escherichia coli. Proc. nat. Acad. Sci. (Wash.) 51, 659–664 (1964).
Dowben, R. M., Weidenmüller, R.: Adaptation of mesophilic bacteria to growth at elevated temperatures. Biochim. biophys. Acta (Amst.) 158, 255–261 (1968).
Friedman, S. M., Axel, R., Weinstein, I. B.: Stability of ribosomes and ribosomal ribonucleic acid from Bacillus stearothermophilus. J. Bact. 93, 1521–1526 (1967).
Garrity, F. L., Detrick, B., Kennedy, E. R.: Deoxyribonucleic acid base composition in the taxonomy of Staphylococcus. J. Bact. 97, 557–560 (1969).
Imšenecki, A., Solnzeva, L.: The growth of aerobic thermophilic bacteria. J. Bact. 49, 539–546 (1945).
Ingram, M.: In: Microbial ecology, Seventh Symposium of the Society for General Microbiology, R. E. O. Williams and C. C. Spicer, Eds. London: Cambridge Univ. Press 1957.
Koffler, H., Gale, G. O.: The relative thermostability of cytoplasmic proteins from thermophilic bacteria. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 67, 249–251 (1957).
Kulpa, C. F., Olsen, R. H.: Altered ribosome activity upon conversion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to psychrophily. Bact. Proc. 71, 124 (1971).
Larsen, H.: In: The bacteria, Vol. 4, I. C. Gunsalus and R. Y. Stanier, Eds. New York: Academic Press 1962.
Liauw, H. L., Geftic, S. G., Adair, F. W., Gelzer, J.: Decreased pathogenicity of Pseudomonas fluorescens resistant to benzalkonium chloride. Bact. Proc. 70, 104 (1970).
Mao, J. C. H., Putterman, M.: The intermolecular complex of erythromycin and ribosome. J. molec. Biol. 44, 347–361 (1969).
McDonald, W. C., Matney, T. S.: Genetic transfer of the ability to grow at 55°C in Bacillus subtilis. J. Bact. 85, 218–220 (1963).
Olsen, R. H., Metcalf, E. S.: Conversion of mesophilic to psychrophilic bacteria. Science 162, 1288–1289 (1968).
Pace, B., Campbell, L. L.: Correlation of maximal growth temperature and ribosome heat stability. Proc. nat. Acad. Sci. (Wash.) 57, 1110–1116 (1967).
Reed, L. J., Muench, H.: A simple method of estimating fifty per cent end-points. Amer. J. Hyg. 27, 493–497 (1938).
Shen, P. Y., Coles, E., Foote, J. L., Stenesh, J.: Fatty acid distribution in mesophilic and thermophilic strains of the genus Bacillus. J. Bact. 103, 479–481 (1970).
Stanier, R. Y., Palleroni, N. J., Doudoroff, M.: The aerobic pseudomonads: a taxonomic study. J. gen. Microbiol. 43, 159–271 (1966).
Weerkamp, A., Heinen, W.: Effect of temperature on the fatty acid composition of the extreme thermophiles, Bacillus caldolyticus and Bacillus caldotenax. J. Bact. 109, 443–446 (1972).
Zeikus, J. G., Taylor, M. W., Brock, T. D.: Thermal stability of ribosomes and RNA from Thermus aquaticus. Biochim. biophys. Acta (Amst.) 204, 512–520 (1970).
Zeikus, J. G., Wolfe, R. S.: Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicus sp. n., an anaerobic, autotrophic, extreme thermophile. J. Bact. 109, 707–713 (1972).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
DeCicco, B.T., Noon, K.F. Thermophilic mutants of Pseudomonas fluorescens . Archiv. Mikrobiol. 90, 297–304 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00408925
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00408925