The influence of oxygen and arginine on the motility of a strain of Pseudomonas sp.

SUMMARY: The motility of a strain of Pseudomonas sp. was activated by molecular oxygen or by arginine. In the presence of sufficient oxygen to support motility, arginine was not required for this purpose. In the absence of sufficient oxygen, arginine supported motility and was broken down to ornithine; there is not yet enough evidence to indicate whether this breakdown supplied the energy for such arginine-activated motility. In the presence or absence of arginine, the organism exhibited chemotaxis towards an optimum oxygen concentration which was less than that at the air/suspension interface.