Colonial and cellular polymorphism in Xenorhabdus luminescens

A highly polymorphic Xenorhabdus luminescens strain was isolated. The primary form of X. luminescens was luminescent and nonswarming and produced a yellow pigment and antimicrobial substances. The primary form generated a secondary form that had a distinct orange pigmentation, was weakly luminescent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied and Environmental Microbiology 1989-05, Vol.55 (5), p.1136-1143
Main Authors: Hurlbert, R.E, Xu, J, Small, C.L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ANATOMIA
ANATOMIE
AUXILIAIRE DE LUTTE BIOLOGIQUE
BACTERIA
BACTERIE
Bacteriology
Biological and medical sciences
CONTROL BIOLOGICO
CONTROL DE INSECTOS
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General Microbial Ecology
LUTTE ANTI-INSECTE
LUTTE BIOLOGIQUE
Microbiology
Morphology, structure, chemical composition
NEMATODE
NEMATODE DES PLANTES
NEMATODOS
NEMATODOS DE LAS PLANTAS
ORGANISMOS PARA CONTROL BIOLOGICO
POLIMORFISMO
POLYMORPHISME
PROTEINAS
PROTEINE
SIMBIONTES
SYMBIOTE
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Summary:A highly polymorphic Xenorhabdus luminescens strain was isolated. The primary form of X. luminescens was luminescent and nonswarming and produced a yellow pigment and antimicrobial substances. The primary form generated a secondary form that had a distinct orange pigmentation, was weakly luminescent, and did not produce antimicrobial substances. Both the primary and secondary forms generated a set of colony variants at frequencies that exceeded normal rates for spontaneous mutation. The variant forms include nonswarming and swarming forms that formed large colonies and a small-colony (SC) form. The primary and secondary forms generated their SC forms at frequencies of between 1 and 14% and 1 and 2%, respectively. The SC forms were distinct from their parental primary and secondary forms in colony and cellular morphology and in protein composition. The cellular morphology and protein patterns of the nonswarming and swarming colony variants were all very similar. The DNA fingerprints of all forms were similar. Each SC-form colony reverted at high frequency to the form from which it was derived. The proportion of parental-type cells in the SC-form colonies varied with age, with young colonies containing as few as 0.0002% parental-type cells. The primary-to-secondary switch was stable, but all the other colony forms were able to switch at high frequencies to the alternative colony phenotypes
ISSN:0099-2240
1098-5336
DOI:10.1128/AEM.55.5.1136-1143.1989