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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., Dec 1995, 4378-4381, Vol 61, No. 12
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology

Role of Glycine Betaine and Related Osmolytes in Osmotic Stress Adaptation in Yersinia enterocolitica ATCC 9610

S Park, LT Smith and GM Smith
Departments of Food Science and Technology and Agronomy and Range Science, University of California, Davis, California 95616

Yersinia enterocolitica is a gram-negative, food-borne pathogen that can grow in 5% NaCl and at refrigerator temperatures. In this report, the compatible solutes (osmolytes) which accumulate intracellularly and confer the observed osmotic tolerance to this pathogen were identified. In minimal medium, glutamate was the only detectable osmolyte that accumulated in osmotically stressed cells. However, when the growth medium was supplemented with glycine betaine, dimethylglycine, or carnitine, the respective osmolyte accumulated intracellularly to high levels and the growth rates of the osmotically stressed cultures improved from 2.4- to 3.5-fold. Chill stress also stimulated the intracellular accumulation of glycine betaine, but the growth rate was only slightly improved by this osmolyte. Both osmotic upshock and temperature downshock stimulated the rate of uptake of [(sup14)C]glycine betaine by more than 30-fold, consistent with other data indicating that the osmolytes are accumulated from the growth medium via transport.