ANTIGENIC DIVERSITY OF PSEUDOMONAS-STUTZERI

Forty-seven Pseudomonas stutzeri strains previously grouped into seven genomovars by nucleic-acid analysis and found to be physiologically heterogeneous even within the genomovars, were studied to determine outer-membrane protein (OMP) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) patterns and antigenic characteristics. The purpose was to identify phenotypic markers distinctive of genomovars. SDS-PAGE, and immunoblotting and antigenic fingerprinting with a panel of antibody probes were used. At least seven antigenic clusters could be delineated, which corresponded to distinctive LPS patterns, but not entirely with genomovars. Strains of any given antigenic cluster did belong to a single genomovar, but the reverse was not observed in all cases. Strains isolated from similar ecosystems fell within the same antigenic cluster. Altogether, the data indicate that LPS patterns and antigenic fingerprints are more discriminating than DNA-DNA relatedness for intragenomovar and intraspecific strain identification.