Fox A, Lau P Y, Brown A, Morgan S L, Zhu Z T, Lema M, Walla M D
J Clin Microbiol. 1984 Mar;19(3):326-32. doi: 10.1128/jcm.19.3.326-332.1984.
Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaires disease, and related organisms have previously been characterized primarily by conventional bacteriological methods, DNA-DNA hybridization, antigenic analysis, and fatty acid analysis. By capillary gas chromatographic analysis for carbohydrates, we have shown that muramic acid and glucosamine, characteristic markers of bacterial cell walls, were present in samples of L. pneumophila and a group of legionella-like organisms. Some bacterial samples contained two unusual isomeric aminodideoxyhexoses (X1 and X2). L. pneumophila was characterized by the absence of fucose and the presence of the peak X1. Tatlockia micdadei (Legionella micdadei) was distinguishable by the presence of large amounts of rhamnose and fucose and by the absence of X1 and X2. Fluoribacter strains were much more variable in their carbohydrate composition. These data suggest that, in addition to other reported techniques, carbohydrate profiling by capillary gas chromatography can be a valuable diagnostic method in reference microbiology laboratories for differentiating members of the family Legionellaceae.
嗜肺军团菌是军团病的病原体，之前对其及相关微生物的鉴定主要采用传统细菌学方法、DNA-DNA杂交、抗原分析和脂肪酸分析。通过对碳水化合物进行毛细管气相色谱分析，我们发现，细菌细胞壁的特征性标志物——胞壁酸和氨基葡萄糖，存在于嗜肺军团菌样本及一组类军团菌微生物中。一些细菌样本含有两种不寻常的异构氨基脱氧己糖（X1和X2）。嗜肺军团菌的特征是不含岩藻糖且存在峰X1。米克戴德军团菌（嗜肺军团菌米克戴德亚种）的特征是含有大量鼠李糖和岩藻糖，且不存在X1和X2。荧光杆菌菌株的碳水化合物组成变化更大。这些数据表明，除了其他已报道的技术外，毛细管气相色谱法进行碳水化合物分析在参考微生物实验室中可作为区分军团菌科成员的一种有价值的诊断方法。
