A TAXONOMIC STUDY OF SOME GRAM-NEGATIVE, NON-FERMENTING BACTERIA
An investigation of 110 cultures of Gram-negative bacteria which failed to produce acid in conventional carbohydrate media was undertaken to determine their taxonomic position.Thirty-seven strains had peritrichous flagella, 30 were monotrichous, 8 were lophotrichous, 3 were either monotrichous or lophotrichous, and 32 strains were non-flagellated.Flagella stains and reaction in Hugh and Leifson"s O/F medium were used to divide the strains into general groups.Sixty-five strains were inert in O/F medium. Forty of these resembled the general description for the genus Alcaligenes. Seventeen strains resembled Alcaligenes biochemically, but were either monotrichously or lophotrichously flagellated. Several strains resembled Vibrio percolans.Nine strains resembled Achromobacter biochemically by oxidatively utilizing pentoses only.Twenty-three strains resembled Pseudomonas aeruginosa. All produced acid oxidatively in the O/F medium.Thirteen strains produced acid fermentatively in O/F medium.Serological studies indicated antigenic heterogeneity. Several strains shared flagellar and somatic antigens, while others were related by either somatic or flagellar components. Seventy-eight strains did not react with any somatic antisera and 54 strains did not react with any flagellar antisera. There was little correlation between antigenicity and biochemical or morphological characteristics.