Motile with a polar flagellum. Gram-negative.
Gelatin: Crateriform to stratiform liquefaction in 3 to 4 days.
Agar colonies: Convex, glistening, generally butyrous, occasionally viscid. Rough, smooth and intermediate forms are recognized in the description quoted. The rough forms are less proteolytic and less active in the hydrolysis of fats.
Agar slant: Growth abundant, spreading, raised, white, shiny, generally butyrous. Sweet ester-like odor resembling that of the flower of the May apple.
Broth: Turbidity and sediment with a thin pellicle.
Litmus milk: Acid ring followed by acid coagulum at surface. Complete coagulation in 2 to 3 weeks, some digestion. Characteristic May-apple or strawberry odor.
Potato: Growth echinulate to arborescent, raised, glistening, white, becoming brownish.
Indole not produced.
Nitrites not produced from nitrates.
Ammonia produced from peptone.
Hydrogen sulfide not produced.
Acid from glucose and galactose, sometimes arabinose. No acid from glycerol, inulin, lactose, fructose, maltose, mannitol, raffinose, salicin or sucrose.
No acetylmethylcarbinol produced.
Fat is generally hydrolyzed (Nashif and Nelson, Jour. Dairy Sci., 36, 1953, 459–488).
Aerobic.
Grows from 10° to 30° C. No growth at 37° C. Very sensitive to heat.
Comment: Various names have been given this species. Hussong (Thesis, Iowa State College, 1932) thinks that these varieties are the result of dissociative action.
Source: Isolated from milk and other dairy products, dairy utensils, water, etc.
Habitat: Soil and water. Widely distributed (Morrison and Hammer, Jour. Dairy Sci., 24, 1941, 9).
31. Pseudomonas perolens (Turner, 1927) Szybalski, 1950. (Achromobacter perolens Turner, Austral. Jour. Exp. Biol, and Med. Sci., 4, 1927, 57; Szybalski, Nature, 165, 1950, 733.)
pe.ro′lens. L. v. perolere to emit a penetrating odor; L. part. adj. perolens emitting an odor.
Small, imperfect spheres and coccoid rods; occasionally longer rods with rounded ends; occur singly and in short chains. 0.3 by 0.4 to 2.55 microns. Motile with a single polar flagellum. Gram-negative.
Gelatin: Liquefied.
Agar slants: Growth moderate, glistening, raised, butyrous, spreading, with undulate border; whitish by reflected and semi-translucent by transmitted light.
Broth: Turbid, with a flocculent sediment and a slight pellicle.
Litmus milk: Acid, gradually decolorized, partial clotting.
Blood serum: Liquefied.
Potato: Growth thick, glistening, raised, brownish.
Nitrites and ammonia produced from nitrates.
Indole not produced.
Acid but no gas from glucose, fructose, galactose, glycerol, mannitol and arabinose. Sucrose, maltose, lactose, raffinose, dulcitol, salicin and inulin not utilized.
Aerobic, facultative.
Grows well at room temperature. No growth at 37° C.
Distinctive characters: Produces a musty odor in eggs. Other varieties and species of Pseudomonas that produce the same odor have been described (Szybalski, loc. cit.). Resembles Pseudomonas fragi but produces a musty rather than a May-apple odor in media.
Source: Isolated from eggs with a musty odor.
Habitat: Musty eggs.
32. Pseudomonas mephitica Claydon and Hammer, 1939. (Jour. Bact., 37, 1939, 254.)
me.phi′ti.ca. L. adj. mephiticus pestilential (skunk-like) odor.
Rods, 0.5 to 1.0 by 1.5 to 14.0 microns, occurring singly, in pairs and in chains. Actively motile with a polar flagellum. Gram-negative.
Gelatin: Slow liquefaction.
Agar colonies: Convex, circular, about
