Effects of carbon sources on chemical composition of cell envelopes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in association with polymyxin resistance.

Cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa 015 were grown in basal medium with isobutyrate, DL-2-methylbutyrate, isovalerate, L-valine, L-isoleucine, L-leucine, D-glucose, or L-glutamate as the carbon source. Their resultant susceptibility to polymyxin B varied from a minimal inhibitory concentration of 2 U of polymyxin per ml for isobutyrate-grown cells to 975 U/ml for L-glutamate-grown cells. Cell envelopes from cells grown with each carbon source were compared with cell envelopes from cells grown in Mueller-Hinton broth as to their content of total protein, carbohydrate, and 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate and as to their protein composition as determined by slab polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. No pattern of cell envelope content of total protein, carbohydrate, 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate, or outer membrane protein concentrations could be correlated with the degree of resistance to polymyxin. In these cells increased resistance to polymyxin was not associated with the loss of outer membrane proteins and lipopolysaccharide by the cell envelope.