The Cytology of Pseudomonas spp. as Revealed by a Silver-Plating Staining Method

Abstract

SUMMARY: A modification of Fontana's silver-plating method was devised and used for the cytological study of 214 isolates of Pseudonzonas spp. Many features, such as flagella, cross-walls or septa, capsules and slime were thereby clearly demonstrated simultaneously and easily. Comparisons were made with other published methods for staining flagella, capsules and slime, and good agreement was obtained. No totally non-flagellate isolate was found, nor were flagella lost during maintenance for 3-5& years in the laboratory. The number of flagella/rod and also bipolar flagellation were found to be characters of little value for species differentiation. The flagellation of young cultures was not found to be significantly different from that observed in older cultures ; the polar position of the flagella was confirmed. Flagella curvature (wavelength and amplitude) as seen in silver-plated organisms prepared under reasonably standardized conditions, was noted and considered to have no usefulness for subgeneric classification.

A Study of Certain Heterotrophic Polarly Flagellate Water Bacteria: Aeromonas, Pseudomonas and Comamonas

“…This was in marked contrast to the experience of Park (1961) (Lehmann & Neuman, 1981;Bisset, 1951;Rhodes, 1958) and in Comamonas (Galarneault & Leifson, 1956).…”

The Characterization of Pseudomonas fluorescens

“…Abundant slime formation was a feature of many preparations stained by the silver-plating method to show flagella (Rhodes, 1958). The amount of exocellular slime varied from abundant to very slight, but it was rare for a pseudomonad not to produce any slime, whatever the age of the culture (12 hr.-28 days).…”

“…Of the flagella-staining methods tried, the silver-plating technique (Rhodes, 1958) was found to be superior in every way. Rhodes (1958) did not find any non-flagellate isolate of Pseudomonas, nor was any loss of flagella during maintenance of stock cultures on laboratory media seen; the number of flagellalrod, amphitrichy, and degree of flagellar curvature were found to be variable characters of little value for strain identification. For every isolate polar flagella were demonstrated, 1-3 flagellalrod being characteristic of Pseudomonas, but numbers up to 10 were common.…”

“…Three methods were investigated. The first was the modification of Morton's Night Blue method as described by Dowson (1949, p. 57), the second used a similar mordant (tannic acid +potash alum) but the dye was basic fuchsin (Leifson, 1951); the third method, which was found to be best, was a modification of Fontana's silver-plating technique (Rhodes, 1958).…”

Bacillus axarquiensis sp. nov. and Bacillus malacitensis sp. nov., isolated from river-mouth sediments in southern Spain

“…Unless otherwise stated the tests were carried out in TSA medium at 32 u C incubation temperature. Flagella were stained using the method of Rhodes (1958). Spores were stained according to the Schaeffer-Fulton method with 5 days' culture on TSA medium.…”