Glucose as a Growth Medium Factor Regulating Lipid Composition of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

I. N. Krasikova^*, S. I. Bakholdina, and T. F. Solov'eva

Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, 690022 Russia; fax: (4232) 31-4050; E-mail: piboc@stl.ru

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received January 22, 2001; Revision received March 15, 2001

---

Effects of glucose and growth temperature on Yersinia pseudotuberculosis O:1b serovarlipid composition have been studied. These growth parameters were shown to have drastic effects on biosynthetic processes in the pseudotuberculosis bacteria. The temperature effect is the most universal, extending to cell growth and to free lipid and lipopolysaccharide content and composition; it is most conspicuous in the bacteria cultivated on glucose-containing nutrient broth. The effect of glucose is selective, affecting only free lipids and depending on temperature (glucose favors phospholipid (PL) synthesis in the cold and inhibits it at 37°C); the effect of glucose is more evident in the cold. Determination of the contents of individual PL in percent dry bacterial weight indicates that the most obvious effect of glucose and/or growth temperature is on phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) content: on both media and at both temperatures an overall decrease in PL content stems from the inhibition of PE synthesis and is attended by decreasing ratio of neutral to acidic lipids.

---

KEY WORDS: glucose, growth temperature, phospholipids, neutral lipids, lipopolysaccharide, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

---