Cell wall and lipid composition of Isosphaera pallida, a budding eubacterium from hot springs

Abstract

Isosphaera pallida is an unusual gliding, budding eubacterium recently isolated from North American hot springs. Electron micrographs of ultrathin sections revealed a cell wall atypical of eubacteria: two electrondense layers separated by an electron-transparent layer, with no evident peptidoglycan layer. Growth was not inhibited by penicillin. Cell walls were isolated from sheared cells by velocity sedimentation. The rigid-layer fraction, prepared from cell walls by treatment with boiling 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate, was hydrolyzed and chemically analyzed for muramic acid. This essential component of peptidoglycan was absent. Amino acid analysis demonstrated a proteinaceous wall structure. Pitlike surface structures seen in negatively stained whole cells and thin sections were correlated with periodically spaced perforations of the rigid sacculus. An analysis of the lipid composition of I. pallida revealed typical ester-linked lipids with unbranched fatty acids, in contrast to the isoprenyl ether-linked lipids of archaebacteria, which also have proteinaceous cell walls. Capnoids, unusual sulfonolipids which are present in gliding bacteria of the Cytophaga-Flexibacter group, were absent.