Abstract
The effect of a sudden change in NaCl concentration of the medium on the time course of alterations in growth rate and phospholipid composition of the moderately halophilic bacteriumVibrio costicola has been investigated. This organism and other moderate halophiles are known to contain a larger proportion of negatively charged phospholipids in their membranes when grown at higher salt concentrations. We show for the first time that the change in proportion of phosphatidylglycerol, relative to phosphatidylethanolamine, which occurs after a shift from 1M to 3M NaCl, or vice versa, is essentially completed during that period immediately following the salt shift when growth is zero or very slow, and before the cells have adopted the growth rate appropriate to the new salt concentration. It appears, therefore, that the alteration in membrane phospholipid composition may be a necessary physiological response for adaptation to change in salinity.
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Kogut, M., Russell, N.J. The growth and phospholipid composition of a moderately halophilic bacterium during adaptation to changes in salinity. Current Microbiology 10, 95–98 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01575766
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01575766