The impact of abiotic factors (temperature and glucose) on physicochemical properties of lipids from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

The impact of the availability of glucose in nutrition medium and growth temperature on the composition and thermotropic behavior of lipids from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis (Enterobacteriaceae) was studied. Y. pseudotuberculosis was grown in nutrition broth (NB) with/without glucose at 8 and 37 degreesC, corresponding to the temperatures of saprophytic and parasitic phases of this bacterium life. The decrease of phosphatidylethanotamine, phosphatidylglycerol and unsaturated fatty acids and the parallel increase of lysophosphatidylethanolamine and diphosphatidylglycerol and saturated and cyclopropane acids were the most significant changes with temperature in bacterial phospholipid (PL) classes and fatty acids, respectively. Glucose did not effect the direction of temperature-induced changes in the contents of PLs, fatty acids, however it enhanced (for PLs) or diminished (for fatty acids) intensity of these changes. The thermally induced transitions of lipids were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was revealed that the addition of glucose to NB induced a sharp shift of DSC thermograms to lower temperatures in the "warm" variants of bacteria. The peak maximum temperature (T-max) of thermal transitions dropped from 50 to 26 degreesC that is the optimal growth temperature of Y pseudotuberculosis. T-max of total lipids of the cells grown at 8 degreesC without glucose in NB was equal to growth temperature that corresponded to the classical mechanism of homeoviscous adaptation of bacteria. An addition of glucose to NB at this growth temperature caused the subsequent reduction of T-max to -8 degreesC, while the temperature ranges of thermograms were not substantially changed. So, not only the temperature growth of bacteria, but also the presence of glucose in NB can modify the physical state of lipids from Y pseudotuberculosis. In this case, both factors affect additively. It is suggested that glucose influences some membrane-associated proteins and then the fluidity of lipid matrix through temperature-inducible genes. (C) 2004 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.