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Utilization of d-tartaric acid by Salmonella paratyphi B and Salmonella java: comparison of anaerobic plate test, lead acetate test and turbidity test

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

Ruth M. Barker
Ruth M. Barker
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Dundee Medical School, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee DDl 9SY, Scotland
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d-Tartrate dehydrase of Salmonella java is an oxygen-sensitive enzyme active in cultures incubated under the poorly aerated conditions of static culture but not in fully aerated shaken cultures nor on plates incubated aerobically. On plates of d-tartrate minimal agar incubated anaerobically the enzyme or the degradation products of d-tartrate are exported from d-tartrate-positive cells and are available to d-tartrate-negative bacteria. This may give misleading growth results when d-tartrate-positive and d-tartrate-negative strains are tested for growth on the same plate of d-tartrate minimal agar.

The lead-acetate test terminated at 24 h, the 24 h turbidity test and the ability to grow on d-tartrate minimal agar within 48 h differentiated 53 S. paratyphi B strains that were negative in each of the three tests from 76 S. java that were positive in each of the tests. An intermediate group of eight strains utilized d-tartrate in Difco bacto-peptone water to give a positive lead acetate reaction at 2 days, were stimulated to a varying degree by d-tartrate in Oxoid peptone water within the same period of incubation and grew poorly on d-tartrate minimal agar. These latter strains may be deficient in a permease controlling uptake of d-tartrate or export of d-tartrato dehydrase.

Inability to utilize d-tartrate is unlikely to be the single character accountable for the reputed enhanced pathogenicity of S. paraptyphi B when compared with S. java. Indications for the existence of an enzyme, complementary to and mutually exclusive with d-tartrate dehydrase, that has a positive correlation with pathogenicity are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 95 , Issue 1 , August 1985 , pp. 107 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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