Amino Acid Metabolism in the Genus Bordetella

Abstract

SUMMARY: Bordetella pertussis, B . parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica all grow in an amino acid medium, using glutamate and forming ammonia from it. After the glutamate has been used, B. pertussis and B. parapertussis deaminate aspartic acid, serine, glycine, alanine and proline. B . bronchiseptica, as well as these amino acids, deaminates threonine, valine, methionine, the leucines and phenylalanine, leaving only histidine, lysine and arginine. B. bronchiseptica grows the most rapidly of the three and B. pertussis the most slowly. AU three organisms oxidize glutamate to give CO, and ammonia but in each some nitrogen is unaccounted for. B. bronchiseplica contains a glutamic decarboxylase and B . parapertussis forms a pink pigment from tyrosine.The genus Hwmophilus originally contained organisms which required blood for growth. As the true requirements of the species were found, it became clear that blood was required by different members for different reasons. The influenzae-parainfluenzae-canis group needs haemin and coenzyme I , but

The Growth of Bordetella pertussis: a Review

“…With 1 yo Casamino Acids, I (Rowatt, 1955) did not detect utilization of threonine or leucine, and the cysteine spot was not visible with the butanol+ acetic acid solvent. With 0.1 yo Casamino Acids, the threonine spot was so faint that it was uncertain whether it was used but the leucine spot was weakened.…”

“…With a nitrogen-containing compound and a large quantity of bacteria this is probably because the cells contain sufficient of the growth factors required ; according to Jebb & Tomlinson (1957) only nicotinamide and cystine need be added to glutamate to give a growth medium. Paper chromatography did not show any amino compounds in the suspension medium after glutamate had been oxidized, but either insufficient of each compound was formed or they were not released from the cells into the medium (Rowatt, 1955).…”

“…Pollock (1948) found that during autoclaving of media fatty material was extracted from the cotton wool plugs of the flasks or test tubes, and deposited on the glassware in quantity sufficient to inhibit growth of BordeteZZa pertussis in the volumes of media normally used. He overcame this difficulty by using for plugging glass wool extracted with methanol; other workers have used aluminium caps (Proom, 1955;Jebb & Tomlinson, 1955) or small glass beakers (Rowatt, 1955). Small inocula of B. pertussis in Cohen & Wheeler's medium+a filtered solution of cysteine grew readily in flasks capped with beakers (see below) ; with cotton-wool plugs growth was merely slowed down, not stopped altogether (Rowatt, unpublished).…”

“…Bordetella pertussis does not contain urease and washed suspensions do not form detectable quantities of arginine or ornithine from glutamate or of pigment from tyrosine and glutamate (Rowatt, 1955).…”

“…Proom (1955) reported the utilization of cystine serine, glutamic acid, alanine, proline and leucine ; aspartic acid, glycine and threonine were not mentioned. He apparently measured these by paper chromatography using butanol +acetic acid as solvent (see Proom & Woiwod, 1949), and I found (Rowatt, 1955) that serine and aspartic acid travel to the same point in chromatograms of media in this solvent. It is possible therefore that aspartic acid was used.…”