Application of Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis to the Characterization and Identification of Arthrobacter Species

Abstract

When polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic profiles of soluble proteins of seven Arthrobacter strains were compared with those of seven coryneform and coryneform-like species, the arthrobacters were delineated from the latter species. Comparisons were made from a composite gel by calculating similarity coefficients. When Arthrobacter globiformis was used as a reference, similarity coefficients for the other Arthrobacter species ranged from 20.7 to 34.5, but the similarity coefficients for the other genera tested were only 7.9 to 18.5. In addition to a separation of arthrobacters from other coryneforms by this method, Arthrobacter crystallopoites and Arthrobacter pyridinolis had a similarity coefficient of approximately 95, which set these two apart from the other Arthrobacter species studied and furthermore suggested that they represent one species. Gel electrophoresis of soluble proteins may provide a good alternative to the use of rod to coccoid transition for identifying arthrobacters since it is faster and simpler to perform than chemical analyses of cell wall components.