Change in the surface hydrophobicity of substrate cells during bdelloplast formation by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus 109J.

During intraperiplasmic growth of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus 109J, the substrate cell surface becomes more hydrophobic. This was shown (i) by comparing the sensitivity to hydrophobic antibiotics of wild-type and lipopolysaccharide mutant strains of Salmonella typhimurium to that of the bdellovibrio growing on these strains and (ii) by measuring the binding efficiency of these strains, Escherichia coli, and their derived bdelloplasts to octyl Sepharose. The kinetics of increase in surface hydrophobicity was similar to the kinetics of the conversion of the substrate cell peptidoglycan to a lysozyme-resistant form (M. Thomashow and S. Rittenberg, J. Bacteriol. 135:1008-1014, 1978), and hydrophobicity reached a maximum at about 60 min in a synchronous culture. The change in hydrophobicity was inhibited by chloramphenicol, suggesting that bdellovibrio protein synthesis was required. Control experiments revealed that the free-swimming bdellovibrio had a more hydrophobic surface than the deep rough mutants of S. typhimurium.