Nutritional Patterns in Acetic Acid Bacteria

Summary: The nutritional patterns of 28 typed and untyped strains of Acetobacter spp. ranged between extremes with predominant lactate (lactaphilic) or glucose (glycophilic) metabolism. Typical lactaphilic strains did not require exogenous supplies of growth factors and gave rise to new ninhydrin-reacting substances when cell suspensions were incubated in solutions of proline, glutamate and aspartate. Under similar conditions, glycophilic strains yielded no new ninhydrin-reacting substances and required added nicotinate, pantothenate and, in some cases, p-amino-benzoate for growth.

All strains utilized ammonium sulphate as sole source of nitrogen for growth. Under such circumstances, most lactaphilic strains grew readily when lactate provided the only source of energy and carbon: other organic acids, even to be partially effective as substitutes for lactate, required the simultaneous presence of glucose. Glycophilic strains utilized ammonium sulphate as sole source of nitrogen for growth slowly and to a limited extent in glucose medium, the degree of growth being increased by the presence of certain organic acids. Characteristically, glycophilic strains required certain sugars or sugar alcohols for growth, but were little or not at all stimulated by lactate.