Open AccessEvidence for small pores in the outer membrane of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Author(s) -
Caulcott Celia A.,
Brown Michael R.W.,
Gonda Igor
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1984.tb00196.x
Subject(s) - pseudomonas aeruginosa , plasmolysis , chemistry , membrane , efflux , escherichia coli , sucrose , chromatography , microbiology and biotechnology , pseudomonadaceae , permeability (electromagnetism) , bacteria , biochemistry , biology , cell wall , genetics , gene
Pseudomonas aeruginosa NCTC6750 and Escherichia coli K12 were used to study permeability of whole, intact cells to a series of labelled oligosaccharides. Stationary phase, oxygen depleted simple salts batch cultures were used. An efflux method was used to compare diffusion from cells of various 3 H‐labelled sugars (an homologous series based on isomaltitol) with diffusion of [ 14 C]sucrose. Both plasmolysed and unplasmolysed cell suspensions were used. The data are consistent with an E. coli pore exclusion limit of approx. 833 Da for unplasmolysed cells and of about 670 Da for plasmolysed cells. For P. aeruginosa the data indicated a relatively small pore exclusion limit about the same size as sucrose with plasmolysis having little effect. These findings were confirmed with P. aeruginosa PAO1 grown in nutrient broth.