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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2000, p. 2414-2421, Vol. 66, No. 6
Departments of Agronomy and Microbiology,
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-1010,1
and Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and
Management, University of California, Berkeley, California
94720-31102
Received 1 November 1999/Accepted 24 January 2000
We examined the effect of reduced water availability on the fatty
acid composition of Pseudomonas putida strain mt-2 grown in
a defined medium in which the water potential was lowered with the
permeating solutes NaCl or polyethylene glycol (PEG) with a molecular
weight of 200 (PEG 200) or the nonpermeating solute PEG 8000. Transmission electron microscopy showed that
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Differential Effects of Permeating and
Nonpermeating Solutes on the Fatty Acid Composition of
Pseudomonas putida
1.0-MPa PEG 8000-treated
cells had convoluted outer membranes, whereas
1.0-MPa NaCl-treated or
control cells did not. At the range of water potential (
0.25 to
1.5
MPa) that we examined, reduced water availability imposed by PEG 8000, but not by NaCl or PEG 200, significantly altered the amounts of
trans and cis isomers of monounsaturated fatty
acids that were present in whole-cell fatty acid extracts. Cells grown
in basal medium or under the
0.25-MPa water potential imposed by NaCl
or PEG 200 had a higher trans:cis ratio than
0.25-MPa PEG 8000-treated cells. As the water potential was lowered
further with PEG 8000 amendments, there was an increase in the amount
of trans isomers, resulting in a higher
trans:cis ratio. Similar results were observed
in cells grown physically separated from PEG 8000, indicating that these changes were not due to PEG toxicity. When cells grown in
1.5-MPa PEG 8000 amendments were exposed to a rapid water potential increase of 1.5 MPa or to a thermodynamically equivalent concentration of the permeating solute, NaCl, there was a decrease in the amount of
trans fatty acids with a corresponding increase in the
cis isomer. The decrease in the trans/cis ratio
following hypoosomotic shock did not occur in the presence of the lipid
synthesis inhibitor cerulenin or the growth inhibitors chloramphenicol
and rifampicin, which indicates a constitutively operating enzyme
system. These results indicate that thermodynamically equivalent
concentrations of permeating and nonpermeating solutes have unique
effects on membrane fatty acid composition.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: 2537 Agronomy
Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1010. Phone: (515)
294-0495. Fax: (515) 294-3163. E-mail: larryh{at}iastate.edu.
Journal paper no. J-18636 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home
Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa, project no. IOW03439.
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