INFRARED ABSORPTION SPECTRA OF WHOLE CELLS OF NOCARDIA AND RELATED ORGANISMS

Abstract

Studies were made on the characterization of the genera Nocardia, Mycobacterium and Streptomyces by means of infrared spectrophotometry of whole cells obtained by the shaking culture. Spectra of 12 strains of mycobacteria, 37 strains of nocardia and 16 strains of streptomyces were investigated. It was found that culture ages of the test organisms may affect the spectral configuration to some extent, but considerably uniform spectra were obtained during the stationary phase of their growth. Among the investigated culture media, the glycerol Kelner-Morton medium proved to be most useful as it gave cells showing characteristic absorption bands in the spectra. Four regions in the spectrum were chosen for the differentiation, and each region was further classified into 5 types according to shape and relative intensity of selected key absorption bands. Good correlation of the spectral conformation and biological properties of test strains was noticed. Spectral analysis also suggested that whole cell infrared spectrophotometry would reflected characteristic chemical components of nocardia as an intermediate between mycobacterium and streptomyces.