COMPARATIVE TAXONOMY OF CRYSTALLOGENIC STRAINS OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA AND PSEUDOMONAS CHLORORAPHIS

Abstract

Haynes, William C. (Northern Utilization Research and Development Division, Peoria, Ill.) and Lenora J. Rhodes . Comparative taxonomy of crystallogenic strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas chlororaphis . J. Bacteriol. 84: 1080–1084. 1962.—Only 11 of 39 strains received in the Agricultural Research Service Culture Collection under the designation Pseudonomas chlororaphis proved to be authentic; 28 were typical, pyocyanogenic strains of P. aeruginosa . The reason for this disproportionately high rate of misidentification apparently arises from an erroneous belief that the ability to produce green and yellow crystals of chlororaphin and oxychlororaphin is confined to P. chlororaphis . The ability of many strains of P. aeruginosa to do likewise is not well known. Inasmuch as the characteristic is not unique to P. chlororaphis , other criteria are required to distinguish crystallogenic strains of these species. After a taxonomic comparison of 18 strains of P. chlororaphis and 47 crystallogenic strains of P. aeruginosa , it was determined that there are three main distinctions: (i) P. aeruginosa grows well at 42 C but fails to grow upon serial transfer at 5 C, whereas P. chlororaphis fails to grow at 42 C, but grows well at 5 C: (ii) most strains of P. aeruginosa produce pyocyanin, whereas P. chlororaphis strains do not; (iii) P. aeruginosa cells possess only one or two polar flagella, whereas P. chlororaphis usually has at least four, sometimes as many as eight, polar flagella.