Sphingomonas elodea explained

Sphingomonas elodea is a species of bacteria in the genus Sphingomonas.

This species is important to humans due to the fact that it produces gellan gum, a suitable agar substitute as a gelling agent in various clinical bacteriological media^[1] and especially important for the culture growth of thermophilic microorganisms in solid media.^[2] When the gellan gum-producing bacterium was first isolated from a natural lily pond it was classified as Pseudomonas elodea based on the taxonomic classification of that time.^[3] However, the gellan gum-producing bacterium was subsequently re-classified as Sphingomonas elodea based on the current taxonomic classification.^[4]

Sphingomonas elodea metabolizes maltodextrin (oligosaccharides of glucose) externally into glucose by the putative exo-acting glucosidase.^[5] Sphingomonas elodea utilizes the Entner-Doudoroff pathway for glucose metabolism.

Notes and References

1. Shungu D, Valiant M, Tutlane V, Weinberg E, Weissberger B, Koupal L, Gadebusch H, Stapley E . 1983. GELRITE as an Agar Substitute in Bacteriological Media. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 46. 4. 840–45. 10.1128/AEM.46.4.840-845.1983. 16346398. 239477. 1983ApEnM..46..840S .
2. Lin CC, Casida Jr LE. 1984. GELRITE as a gelling agent in media for the growth of thermophilic microorganisms. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 47. 2. 427–29. 10.1128/AEM.47.2.427-429.1984. 16346480. 239688. 1984ApEnM..47..427L .
3. Kang KS, Veeder GT, Mirrasoul PJ, Kaneko T, Cottrell IW. 1982. Agar-like polysaccharide produced by a Pseudomonas species: Production and basic properties. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 43. 5. 1086–1091. 10.1128/AEM.43.5.1086-1091.1982. 16346007. 244190. 1982ApEnM..43.1086K .
4. Narendra BV, Lin CC, Cleary JM, Fagan MJ,Saier Jr MH. 1995. Glucose metabolism in Sphingomonas elodea': pathway engineering via construction of a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase insertion mutant. Microbiology. 141. 9. 2339–50. 10.1099/13500872-141-9-2339. 7496544. free.
5. Lin CC. 1991. Maltodextrin metabolism in Pseudomonas elodea during gellan fermentation. Proceedings of Annual Meeting of Society of Industrial Microbiology. 86.