Page:Bergey's manual of determinative bacteriology.djvu/121




 * HH. Attacks members of the family Vitaceae.


 * II. Attack members of numerous families.

1. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Schroeter, 1872) Migula, 1900. (Bacterium aeruginosum Schroeter, in Cohn, Beitrage z. Biologie, 1, Heft 2, 1872, 126; Bacillus pyocyaneus Gessard, Compt. rend. Acad. Sci., Paris, 94, 1882, 536; Pseudomonas pyocyanea Migula, in Engler and Prantl, Die natürl. Pflanzenfam., 1, la, 1895, 29; Migula, Syst. d. Bakt., 2, 1900, 884.)

ae.ru.gi.no′sa. L. adj. aeruginosus full of copper rust or verdigris, hence green.

Common name: Blue pus organism.

Rods, 0.5 to 0.6 by 1.5 microns, occurring singly, in pairs and short chains. Motile, possessing one to three polar flagella. (Monotrichous according to Reid, Naghski, Farrell and Haley, Penn. Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. 422, 1942, 6.) Gram-negative.

Gelatin colonies: Yellowish or greenish yellow, fringed, irregular, skein-like, granular, rapidly liquefying.

Gelatin stab: Rapid liquefaction. The fluid assumes a yellowish green or bluish green color.

Agar colonies: Large, spreading, grayish with dark center and translucent edge, irregular. Medium greenish.

Agar slant: Abundant, thin, white, glistening, the medium turning green to dark brown or black, fluorescent.

Broth: Marked turbidity with thick pellicle and heavy sediment. Medium yellowish green to blue, with fluorescence, later brownish. Often produces pyocyanine, fluorescein and pyrorubrin (Meader, Robinson and Leonard, Am. Jour. Hyg., 5, 1925, 682).

Litmus milk: A soft coagulum is formed, with rapid peptonization and reduction of litmus. Reaction alkaline.

Potato: Luxuriant, dirty brown, the medium becoming dark green.

Indole usually not produced (Sandiford, Jour. Path. and Bact., 44, 1937, 567).

Nitrates reduced to nitrites and nitrogen.

Glucose, fructose, galactose, arabinose, maltose, lactose, sucrose, dextrin, inulin, glycerol, mannitol and dulcitol are not fermented. Glucose oxidized to gluconic acid, 2-ketogluconic acid and other intermediates (Lockwood, Tabenkin and Ward, Jour. Bact., 42, 1941, 51; Haynes, Jour. Gen. Microbiol., 5, 1951, 939).

Blood serum: Liquefied. Yellow liquid, greenish on surface.

Blood hemolyzed.

Cultures have marked odor of trimethylamine.

Aerobic, facultative.

Optimum temperature, 37° C. Good growth at 42° C.

Pathogenic for rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and mice.

Distinctive characters: Some strains produce pyocyanine, a phenazine derivative which is extractable from alkaline media with chloroform as a deep blue pigment. Upon addition of acid, the color is transformed to red and becomes insoluble in chloroform. The ability to grow well at 42° C, to oxidize gluconic acid to 2-keto-gluconic acid and to produce a slime in potassium gluconate media permits identification even though pyocyanine is not formed (Haynes, loc. cit.).

Source: Pus from wounds. Regarded as identical with one of the plant pathogens (Pseudomonas polycolor) by Elrod and Braun (Jour. Bact., 44, 1942, 633).

Habitat: Cause of various human and animal lesions. Found in polluted water and sewage.