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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2008, p. 6894-6902, Vol. 190, No. 20
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00572-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Surface Spreading Motility Shown by a Group of Phylogenetically Related, Rapidly Growing Pigmented Mycobacteria Suggests that Motility Is a Common Property of Mycobacterial Species but Is Restricted to Smooth Colonies ^,

Gemma Agustí, Oihane Astola, Elisabeth Rodríguez-Güell, Esther Julián, and Marina Luquin^*

Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia, Facultat de Biociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain

Received 25 April 2008/ Accepted 30 July 2008

Motility in mycobacteria was described for the first time in 1999. It was reported that Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium avium could spread on the surface of solid growth medium by a sliding mechanism and that the presence of cell wall glycopeptidolipids was essential for motility. We recently reported that Mycobacterium vaccae can also spread on growth medium surfaces; however, only smooth colonies presented this property. Smooth colonies of M. vaccae do not produce glycopeptidolipids but contain a saturated polyester that is absent in rough colonies. Here, we demonstrate that Mycobacterium chubuense, Mycobacterium gilvum, Mycobacterium obuense, and Mycobacterium parafortuitum, which are phylogenetically related to M. vaccae, are also motile. Such motility is restricted to smooth colonies, since natural rough mutants are nonmotile. Thin-layer chromatography analysis of the content of cell wall lipids confirmed the absence of glycopeptidolipids. However, compounds like the above-mentioned M. vaccae polyester were detected in all the strains but only in smooth colonies. Scanning electron microscopy showed great differences in the arrangement of the cells between smooth and rough colonies. The data obtained suggest that motility is a common property of environmental mycobacteria, and this capacity correlates with the smooth colonial morphotype. The species studied in this work do not contain glycopeptidolipids, so cell wall compounds or extracellular materials other than glycopeptidolipids are implicated in mycobacterial motility. Furthermore, both smooth motile and rough nonmotile variants formed biofilms on glass and polystyrene surfaces.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia, Facultat de Biociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. Phone: 34 935812540. Fax: 34 935812387. E-mail: marina.luquin{at}uab.cat

Published ahead of print on 8 August 2008.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2008, p. 6894-6902, Vol. 190, No. 20
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00572-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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