Substratum requirements for bacterial gliding motility

✍ Scribed by Joseph Arlauskas; Robert P. Burchard

• Book ID: 104764324
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 540 KB
• Volume: 133
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0302-8933
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00413527

✦ Synopsis

Flexibacter FS-1 filaments are unable to glide on agarose gels or on charge-neutralized glass unless those substrata are supplemented with the charged, cold watersoluble fraction of agar, or a variety of polyanionic polysaccharides derived from plants, yeasts and bacteria. Two graft polymers ofxanthan gum also promote gliding motility under these conditions, as do an extracellular product of the bacteria themselves. A number of other polymers and small molecular species are ineffective as supplements. These results are considered in the context of the soil habitat of this Flexibacter. Among a variety of other gliding bacteria tested, several strains of the order Cytophagales also were unable to glide on agarose.