Chemotaxis of Bacillus subtilis to Fungal Exudates and to the Individual Amino Acid Components in Fungal Exudates PDF

Keywords

amino acids, bacteria, peptides

Abstract

Penicillium decumbens produced large quantities of free amino acids, peptides and proteins into the culture medium. Chemotactic response of Bacillus subtilis to the fungus filtrate and some amino acids were examined. Three times as many bacteria were attracted by the culture filtrate than by the original culture medium. Numbers of bacteria attracted by optimum concentration of leucine, serine or alanine were in the range of 8.2- 9.9 x 10^4 compared to 1.6 X 10^3 bacteria attracted by the control (chemotaxis medium). The fungus filtrate and the amino acids were still goo attractants at high hydrogen ion concentrations. It is postulated that if fungi can exude similar substances in soil, motile bacteria like B. subtilis could be attracted to them, provided that a continuous water film exists