PEANUT RHIZOBIA UNDER SALT STRESS - ROLE OF TREHALOSE ACCUMULATION IN STRAIN ATCC-51466

Strain ATCC 51466, a motile peanut Rhizobium sp., showed patterns of utilization of diverse carbon sources characteristic of fast growers. Bacteria had periplasmic neutral glucans with molecular weight close to 3000. When the extracellular concentration of NaCl was raised to 400 mM, the lag phase of the culture was prolonged about threefold and the generation time was increased almost twice. The changes in growth behavior of salt-stressed bacteria were accompanied by the full suppression of periplasmic oligoglucans and the accumulation of cellular trehalose. Almost identical changes in cell-associated oligoglucans were observed after exposing peanut Rhizobium sp. strain ATCC 10317 to hypersalinity. When the osmotic pressure of the medium was augmented by the addition of either 200 mM mannitol or 16% (w/v) polyethylene glycol, cells of strain ATCC 51466 contained decreased levels of oligoglucans and accumulated trehalose. On the other hand, the content of cellular trehalose increased throughout logarithmic and stationary phases of growth of strain ATCC 51466 in a medium supplemented with 400 mM NaCl. When bacterial cultures were shifted from hypersaline to basal media, oligoglucans were the only oligosaccharides detected. The addition of 10 mM proline to bacteria grown under hypersalinity led to a 50% decrease in the level of trehalose and to the accumulation of oligoglucans. The addition of 10 mM glycine betaine to bacteria grown under hypersalinity also produced accumulation of oligoglucans, but the level of trehalose did not decrease. The results presented here are consistent with a role for trehalose as a compatible solute in peanut Rhizobium ATCC 51466, and they suggest that exogenously added proline may act as a compatible solute in preference to trehalose.