Author(s): M.I. Naguib, Y.E. Saleh, and A.A. Amin
Article publication date: 1987-04-01
Vol. 5 No. 1 (yearly), pp. 85-102.
138
Keywords
bacteria, decarboxylate, genus
Abstract
An attempt to differentiate 40 members of bacteria, belonging mostly to the family Enterobacteriaceae, on the basis of their capacity to decarboxylate 24 different amino acids has been carried out.
The results showed that the majority of the bacteria were able to decarboxylate threonine (29 members), ornithine (25 members), lysine (24 members), histidine (22 members) and arginine (21 members). Very few members were able to decarboxylate alanine, aspartic acid, or methionine (4 members for each), cystine, glycine or leucine (3 members for each), hydroxyproline, iso-leucine, nor-leucine, proline, tryptophan or valine (2 members for each). Only one bacterium decarboxylated tyrosine while non could carboxylate dihydroxyphenyl alanine.
Within the limits of these results, a preliminary key is proposed for the identification of each or a small group or closely related species and/or strains of one genus.